Original Woodcut Tosca [SOLD]

T. C. Cannon (1946-1978) Pai-doung-u-day “One Who Stands In The Sun” died young and left behind a beautiful, powerful oeuvre. He was born in 1946 in Lawton, Oklahoma, and died in an automobile accident in Santa Fe in 1978.

He had attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, studying with Fritz Scholder. He seemed somewhat bitter and distrustful of authority. One of his teachers suggested to T. C. that they get in two rocking chairs facing each other and rock and frown until all the aggression was gone. He was away from home for the first time, so perhaps his quiet and reflective nature was misread as bitterness.

In 1975, T. C. Cannon began a collaboration with Japanese master woodcutter Maeda and master printer Uchikawa, a collaboration that continued until Cannon’s untimely death in 1978. The result was the publication of the Memorial Woodcut Suite.  In 1978, Cannon traveled to New York to sign the first two of the completed Japanese woodcuts.  He returned to Santa Fe and died in an automobile accident on May 8^th.  Cannon’s father, Walter, signed the remaining woodcut prints for his son.  

T. C. had completed the following woodcuts with his Japanese collaborators:

            Collector #5 (signed by T. C. Cannon)

            His Hair Flows Like a River (signed by Walter Cannon)

            Two Guns Arikara (signed by Walter Cannon)

            Hopi with Manta (signed by T. C. Cannon)

            Woman at Window (signed by Walter Cannon)

            Dandy (signed by Walter Cannon)

            Tosca (signed by Walter Cannon)  

Cannon expressed mischiefness in his work. He treated his Indian subject in brightly arrayed costuming as a “dandy.” He portrayed the Indian of a distant past, but placed him in today’s world. His people were always dressed to be beautiful.

This image of two Indians is a good example. Two beautifully dressed Indians are gathered around a gramophone listening to Tosca, in a room brightly decorated with wallpaper and a red bright rug—a perfect example of Cannon’s thoughts of traditional Indians in today’s world.

The walls of the room are covered in colorful wallpaper with bars of dark green running vertically, each bar containing red hearts.  Above the gramophone is a tapestry of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy superimposed on a flag-style background.  A naked single light bulb dangles from the ceiling.  The gramophone sits on a round oak antique table and the male Indian sits in an antique chair while his wife stands nearby.  The red rug dominates the lower portion of the woodblock and, on the edge, is a playbill of Tosca. 

This image was completed but not signed by the artist before his untimely death. Cannon had approved it. His father Walter Cannon signed it for his son.  The woodblock was issued in an edition of 200 copies.  This is #19/200.  T. C. Cannon’s signature is reproduced on lower right and his dad’s signature of T. C.’s name appears in lower left. The image has been framed to expose the entire paper.  All materials are archival.  A wood silver frame was chosen.

Following Cannon’s death, Aberbach Fine Art put together a Memorial Exhibit in December 1979.  They published a book to accompany the exhibit (see Recommended Reading below).

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: from the personal collection of artist Amado Pena

Reference and Recommended Reading: T. C. Cannon Memorial Exhibit December 1979 by Aberbach Fine Art, New York.  Hard cover, 154 pages. Photographs of the artist and his work.