Jimmie Durham

Jimmie Durham
Jimmie Durham in 2012
Born	1940 (age 76–77) Washington, Arkansas or Nevada County, Arkansas
Nationality	American
Education	L'École des Beaux-Arts (Switzerland)
Known for	sculpture, poetry, installation art
Style	postmodern

Jimmie Durham (born 1940) is an American-born sculptor, essayist and poet, living and working in Europe since 1994. He was active in the United States in the civil rights movements of African Americans and Native Americans in the 1960s and 1970s, serving on the central council of the American Indian Movement (AIM). He returned to working at art while living in New York City. His work has been extensively exhibited.

He has long claimed to be Cherokee but that claim has been disputed by enrolled members of the Cherokee Nation. He has "no known ties to any Cherokee community."

Jimmie Durham was born in 1940 either in Nevada County, Arkansas, or Washington, Hempstead County, Arkansas. He claimed to grow up in a Cherokee-speaking community. According to Cherokee lawyer, justice and law professor Steve Russell, Durham is among professional posers as Cherokee and Native American. He is described as having "made a career of being Cherokee with no known ties to any Cherokee community, although he has claimed to be Wolf Clan and to have been raised with Cherokee as a first language."

In the 1960s Durham became active in theater, performance, and literature related to the civil rights movement in the 1960s. In 1965 he moved to Austin, where he enrolled at the University of Art and started exhibiting his work. His first solo exhibition in Austin was either in 1965 or 1968. In 1969 Durham moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where he studied at L'École des Beaux-Arts.

In 1973, Durham returned to the United States and became involved with the American Indian Movement (AIM). From 1973 until 1980 he worked as a political organizer with AIM, becoming a member of the movement’s Central Council and representing himself as Native American. Usually he claimed to be Cherokee and wrote on behalf of the organization.