Acee Blue Eagle was an American painter, sculptor, dancer, poet, and educator. He was well-known for his artistic abilities and fine art paintings of the traditional cultural subject matter.
Background
Acee Blue Eagle was born on August 17, 1907, in Anadarko, Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. He was the son of W. Solomon McIntosh and Martha "Mattie" Odom. He had a twin brother who died four days after their birth. Both parents died when he was young, and he lived with his grandparents, who also died during his childhood. Acee had one half-brother, Clifford R. McIntosh.
The name, Acee, comes from having been called "Ah Say" since he was a child and reflects the initials of his first and middle name. He took the name "Blue Eagle" from his maternal grandfather and the name "Che Bon Ah Bula" from his paternal grandfather, which translates, to Laughing Boy.
Education
Acee Blue Eagle attended Haskell Indian Industrial Training Institute (now Haskell Indian Nations University) in Lawrence, Kansas, and Chilocco Indian School, earning a high school diploma in 1928. After graduating from Chilocco, he entered Bacone Indian College (now Bacone College) and later enrolled in classes at the University of Oklahoma. In 1932 he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from this university.
A prolific artist, Acee Blue Eagle accepted a government job painting murals in the early 1930s. He painted murals for the Coalgate Post Office, Central State College at Edmund, Oklahoma College for Women at Chickasha, the Carnegie Library in Muskogee, and the Seminole Post Office. Because he did so much research on his subjects, traveling to New York, Chicago, and the Smithsonian studying the ancient traditions, rituals, and ceremonies, he had an impeccable reputation for authenticity, and he was never questioned as he went about his work.
In 1934, Acee exhibited eight paintings at the World's Fair in Chicago. One of his favorite works, commissioned by the Lions' Clubs of Oklahoma for the Battleship USS Oklahoma, was The Buffalo Hunt. This painting, given to the captain of that ship in 1934 for the ship's library, is now at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. In the summer of 1935, Acee lectured on Indian art, dance, and song at Oxford University as well as other European universities. He even gave a command performance in full Indian regalia at Buckingham Palace, greatly impressing the Queen and her two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II). His European appearances generated newsprint all over the world.
When he returned from his continental tour, he became the head of the Art Department at Bacone College, serving from 1935 to 1938 to pursue his art full time. In 1936 he exhibited his work at the National Exhibition of Art at Rockefeller Center in New York. In 1939 he traveled to Mexico to study, then to New York to study with Wenold Waiss. During World War II, he served at the United States Army Air Corps. He taught at the University of Kansas extension division in 1949 and the Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology beginning in 1956. During the 1950s, he had a television show for children on a Tulsa-Muskogee station.
Indian Maiden and Blue Deer-Sacred Sun and Medicine Wands
Indian Woman in Buckskin
Fancy War Dancer
Flute Player
Woman Hoeing Corn
Views
A practitioner of flat style painting, Acee Blue Eagle captured moments in detail of figures with patterns, colors, and symbols with true authenticity in the scenes he depicted.
Connections
Acee Blue Eagle's first wife was Loretta Thornton Kendrick. From 1946 to 1952, he was married to his second wife, a famous Balinese dancer, Devi Dja, and became involved in her career, an involvement that was briefly reflected in his art. However, Dja and Blue Eagle divorced and Blue Eagle lived with Mae Wadley Abbott for the last years of his life.