Walter Richard (Dick) West, Sr.

Southern Cheyenne, 1912-1996

Death PlaceOklahoma, United States, North America

Birth PlaceDarlington, Oklahoma, United States, North America

BiographyWalter Richard "Dick" West, Sr. (1912–1996) was a Southern Cheyenne painter, sculptor, and educator from Oklahoma and an honored member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. Dick West was a dean of the traditional flat style of Indian painting and an innovator in contemporary abstract and semiabstract painting. He was also a sculptor. Characteristics of his work are sophisticated color, subtle brushwork, master draftsmanship, and detailed rendering of anatomy. His subject matter was the North American Indian, especially the Cheyenne tribe, on which he was an authority.

Dick West, as he was commonly known, was born on September 8, 1912 in a tipi near the Darlington Agency in Oklahoma. His father was Lightfoot West. West's mother was Rena Flying Coyote, also known as Emily Black Wolf, whose parents were Big Belly Woman and Thunder Bull. West's Cheyenne name, Wapah Nahyah means "Lightfooted Runner.]

He attended Concho Indian Boarding School and attended the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, when it was still a high school. West graduated from high school in 1935. One of his earliest artistic mentors was the Arapaho painter, Carl Sweezy.
From 1936 to 1938, West attended Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he earned an AA degree. At Bacone, West studied under the celebrated Muscogee-Pawnee-Wichita artist, Acee Blue Eagle. As a young man, West played football and worked in oil fields.

At the University of Oklahoma, West earned a BFA degree in 1941 and an MFA degree in 1950. While at OU, he studied under the Swedish artist Oscar Jacobson who mentored the Kiowa Five. West felt that Jacobson's active support of Native Americans helped him cope with widespread racial prejudice that he encountered in Norman.

In 1941-42, West moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he studying mural painting under Olle Nordmark. West then continued his post-graduate studies at Northeastern State University, University of Tulsa, and Redlands College.

Person TypeIndividual