Jerome Tiger
Jerome Richard Tiger (1941–1967) was a highly influential Native American painter from Oklahoma. Tiger produced hundreds of paintings from 1962 until his death in 1967.
A fullblood Muscogee Creek-Seminole, Tiger's style is said to be a combination of "spiritual vision, humane understanding, and technical virtuosity" but with traditional subject matter and composition.
His paintings first gained recognition at the Philbrook Museum of Art.
Born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma on July 8, 1941, Tiger attended public schools in Eufaula, Oklahoma and Muskogee, Oklahoma. English was not his first language.
Dropping out of high school at the age of 16, Tiger joined the United States Navy and served in the Naval Reserve from 1958 to 1960. He also worked as a laborer and prize fighter. He studied at the Cleveland Engineering Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, but dropped out after one year. Tiger married Peggy Richmond and they had three children.
In 1962, a friend encouraged Tiger to submit his paintings to the American Indian Artists Annual at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He began to produce a prolific number of paintings over the next several years, winning numerous awards. In 1966, the Philbrook Museum of Art displayed a solo exhibit of Tiger's art. During this time, he lived in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Tiger was compared to Rembrandt and Francisco Goya because of his ability to draw an object or person after a short glance. He worked in oil, watercolor, tempera, casein, pencil, and pen and ink.
Tiger died from a handgun accident on August 13, 1967, at the age of 26. His art can be found at the The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Philbrook and Gilcrease Museums in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the OSU Museum of Art in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee, Oklahoma, the Woolaroc Museum near Bartlesville, Oklahoma, the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Museum of the American Indian and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
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