Artist Marian Terasaz (Aukemah) was the first Comanche woman to depart from traditionally female disciplines such as textiles and beadwork and include painting in her artistic practice.1 In the early twentieth century, the role of Indigenous Plains women in the arts, the types of arts they pursued, the subjects they chose to represent, and how they chose to represent them began to shift. Women moved from beadwork, quillwork, and other decorative art forms and started to create works that affirmed and maintained kinship relationships, brought prestige to the family, and preserved the values, mores and worldview of their tribe.2Terasaz focused on Comanche subjects, primarily women and the rituals and activities of everyday life, and her profound understanding of Comanche cultural practices informed her Flatstyle narrative paintings. Many of her groundbreaking artworks give voice to the rarely told stories and perspectives of Comanche women. Terasaz’s lived experience, in addition to the intergenerational artistic practices of Comanche dressmaking and the artist’s eye for pattern, color, and detail, add a depth of meaning and significance to her thoughtful portrayals of her subjects’ lives.Terasaz was a protégée of renowned Indigenous artist Acee Blue Eagle from 1935 to 1938, and she received formal studio art training at Bacone College (Muskogee, Oklahoma). Her work was included in the 1950 portfolio American Indian Painters, organized by Professor Oscar Jacobson. Her delicate, narrative-based works are also in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, D.C.) and the Philbrook Museum of Art (Tulsa).—Jordan Poorman Cocker, Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Scholar for Indigenous Painting Collection Research, 2021_____________________________1 Broder, Earth Songs, Moon Dreams, 128.2 Pearce, Women and Ledger Art, 1.
