Ducee Blue Buzzard (1 results)

No Binding. Condition: vg. African American WWII Servicemen Photo DioramaBy Muscogee Creek Native American Artist Ducee Blue Buzzard"Collins Life Pictures" of Muskogee, OklahomaAn amazing survival of a unique vernacular photographic object memoria. Three-dimensional photographic diorama housed in original shadow box, comprising four original cut-out photograph portraits within a shallow paperboard box within a clear lucite (or pressed celluloid) decorative frame. 12 x 10 x 2 1/2 inches. Lucite frame uniformly yellowed with minor scratch marks at the top right and a few small stains. Diorama box with joints and attachment to frame reinforced with old tape. Original maker's ink-stamped label affixed to rear of box: "Collins Life Pictures / Phone 592 / P. O. Box 294 / 1204 York St. Muskogee, Okla." Foliage a bit faded; cut-out photographs lightly faded. Overall condition is very good. African American WWII Servicemen Photo DioramaBy Muscogee Creek Native American Artist Ducee Blue Buzzard"Collins Life Pictures" of Muskogee, OklahomaAn amazing survival of a unique vernacular photographic object memorializing four African American WWII servicemen. This photographic diorama was made during World War II in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and likely depicts service members based at nearby Camp Gruber, which opened on May 12, 1942.Based on careful research we can attribute this work to the noted Muscogee Creek artist, Howard Rufus Collins, who styled himself Ducee Blue Buzzard.Though similar to Mexican fotoesculturas - those sculpted wood photo objects popular in mid-20th-century Mexico - the present diorama follows its own style format. Rather than a fotoescultura, the Collins Life Picture has more in common with the surrealist shadow boxes by Joseph Cornell. Indeed, at the time of the present piece, Cornell was still developing his assemblage art aesthetic, thus making the Collins Life Picture an interesting contemporary work to juxtapose to that of the renowned surrealist of Utopia Parkway. The present diorama contains four hand-cut, lightly hand-tinted photographic portraits mounted on cardboard and attached on a base of red clay. A delightful color printed background provides a bucolic atmosphere. Palm trees to the left and right made of cardboard and red clay, topped with dried plant foliage further exoticize the setting. The foreground is composed of a mixture of dried foliage, plastic foliage, and dried flowers in yellow and pink. The four unidentified African American servicemen are, from left to right: a (likely) United States Army enlisted infantryman, a United States Navy enlisted sailor in work coveralls, an Army enlisted man, and a commissioned Army chaplain. These servicemen, almost certainly connected with nearby Camp Gruber, were clearly loved ones and/or good friends of the person who commissioned this artwork.Collins Life Pictures of Muskogee, OklahomaThe diorama was created by Collins Life Pictures, based in Muskogee, Oklahoma, an art business listed in the 1948 Muskogee directory under its own classification of "Photographic Reproduction." The ink stamp label on the verso of the box reads: Collins Life Pictures / Phone 592 / P. O. Box 294 / 1204 York St. Muskogee, Okla.Based on census records and the above-mentioned directory we can comfortably attribute this photographic object to Howard Rufus Collins (1894-1972), a Muscogee Creek Native American man who is listed in the 1950 census as working as a commercial artist in Muskogee. There is no other person residing in Muskogee with the name of Collins listed in either the 1940 or 1950 census associated in any manner with art production or photography. Howard Rufus Collins was born in Checotah, Oklahoma, studied at Eufaula and Wetumka (Oklahoma) Creek Mission and St Joseph College (Muskogee). At some. Map.