Carl Sweezy

{{Short description|American painter}} {{Infobox artist | name = Carl Sweezy | image = File:Carl sweezy 1904.jpg | image_size = 300px | alt = Ledger drawing of two men and a shield at right facing a man on a horse with a shield at left | caption = Ledger drawing by Carl Sweezy, 1904 | native_name = Wó’oteen | native_name_lang = arp | birth_name =  | birth_date = c. 1879 | birth_place = near Darlington Agency, Indian Territory | death_date = {{Death date|1953|05|28|}} | death_place = Lawton, Oklahoma | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | citizenship = Southern Arapaho, United States | education = Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Chilocco Indian Agricultural School | alma_mater = | known_for = painting | notable_works = | style = Southern Plains Flatstyle painting | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | father = Hinan Ba Seth | mother = | relatives = | family = | awards =  | elected = | patrons = James Mooney | memorials = }}

'''Carl Sweezy''' (c. 1879–1953) was a Southern Arapaho painter from Oklahoma.<ref name="ohs">{{cite web |last1=Gettys |first1=Marshall |title=Sweezy, Carl (ca. 1879–1953) |url=https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=SW004 |website=The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture |access-date=22 March 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090808192737/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/S/SW004.html |archive-date=August 8, 2009}}</ref> He painted individual portraits, but was best known for his portrayals of ceremonies and dances.<ref name="Wyckoff, 243-244">Wyckoff, 243-44</ref>

==Background== Carl Sweezy was born around 1879 near the Darlington Agency on the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Reservation in Indian Territory. His Arapaho name was '''Wó’oteen''' (new Arapaho orthography; old spelling - '''Wattan'''), meaning "Black." Sweezy's father was Hinan Ba Seth, meaning "Big Man."<ref name=ohs/> His tribe still hunted buffalo when he was a child.<ref name=w23>Wyckoff, 23</ref>

Sweezy's mother died early, so he lived full-time at the Mennonite Mission School at Darlington Agency. He later attended the Mennonite Boarding School of Halstead, Kansas, Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Pennsylvania,<ref name=s72>Daniel C. Swan, 72</ref> and Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, north of Ponca City, Oklahoma. For a season Sweezy was a professional baseball player, and later he worked as a tribal policeman. Although he never received formal art training, he loved drawing and painting from an early age. An agency employee encouraged him with a gift of watercolor paints.<ref name=s72/>

==Artwork== Around 1895, when Sweezy was 14 years old,<ref name=s72/> ethnographer James Mooney commissioned Sweezy to paint images of traditional Arapaho life.<ref name=w23/> Later, Sweezy also worked with anthropologist George Dorsey.<ref name=m107>Morand et al, 107</ref> Sweezy continued to be a prolific painter, expanding his media and materials into the mid-20th century.<ref name=w243>Wyckoff, 243</ref> By the 1920s Sweezy was a full-time painter.<ref name=m107/>

Sweezy worked in watercolors on paper and oil on canvas,<ref name=w243/> as well as house paint on board.<ref name=s72/> He was one of Cheyenne artist Dick West's first artistic mentors.<ref>Wyckoff, 288</ref> Although he painted individual portraits, he is known for his portrayals of ceremonies and dances, sometimes with over a dozen individual figures, with implied action and narrative.<ref name="Wyckoff, 243-244"/> Sweezy developed a technique, employed by later Southern Plains artists, of painting an active Native American Church meeting by rolling up the tipi flaps to reveal the participants inside.<ref>Swan, 74</ref>

==Public collections== Sweezy's work can be found in the following public art collections: {{div col}} *Cleveland Museum of Natural History *Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art *The George Gustav Heye Center *Gilcrease Museum *Heard Museum *Indian Arts and Crafts Board, US Department of the Interior *Oklahoma History Center *National Museum of the American Indian, Washington DC *Oklahoma Museum of Natural History *Philbrook Museum of Art *Southwest Museum, Los Angeles *University of Oklahoma, Library<ref name=les>Lester, 537</ref> {{div col end}}

==Death== Carl Sweezy died on May 28, 1953<ref name=ohs/> in Lawton, Oklahoma.<ref name=les/>

==Quotes== ''The corn road, we found, was different from the buffalo road in more ways than anyone, white or Indian, had realized, and the old people could not learn it in a hurry.'' —Carl Sweezy<ref name=w23/>

''With war horses running, feathers and banners flying on the wind from spears and lances, shields and quivers shining at men's sides and shoulders, and women singing war songs for their men, I think a war party setting out, or coming in victorious, must have been one of the splendid things in life to see. If I had to miss that, I have had the next best thing: I have seen old warriors wearing their fine trappings, and I have heard them tell their stories...'' –Carl Sweezy, 1950<ref name=w243/>

==Notes== {{reflist|2}}

==References== * Lester, Patrick D. ''The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters''. Norman and London: The Oklahoma University Press, 1995. {{ISBN|0-8061-9936-9}}. * Morand, Ann, Kevin Smith, Daniel C. Swan, and Sarah Erwin. ''Treasures of Gilcrease: Selections from the Permanent Collection.'' Tulsa, OK: Gilcrease Museum, 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-9725657-1-4}}. * Swan, Daniel C.'' Peyote Religious Art: Symbols of Faith and Belief.'' Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1999. {{ISBN|1-57806-096-6}} * Wyckoff, Lydia L., ed. ''Visions and Voices: Native American painting from the Philbrook Museum of Art''. Tulsa, OK: Philbrook Museum of Art, 1996. {{ISBN|0-86659-013-7}}.

==External links== * [http://collections.si.edu/search/results.jsp?q=Sweezy&fq=online_visual_material%3Atrue Carl Sweezy artwork in the Smithsonian Institution's collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716094115/http://collections.si.edu/search/results.jsp?q=Sweezy&fq=online_visual_material:true |date=2011-07-16 }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweezy, Carl}} Category:Arapaho people Category:Native American painters Category:Native American Church Category:Painters from Oklahoma Category:People from Canadian County, Oklahoma Category:1879 births Category:1953 deaths Category:20th-century American painters Category:American male painters Category:Carlisle Indian Industrial School alumni Category:Native American male artists Category:20th-century American male artists