Jimmie Durham

Jimmie Bob Durham (July 10, 1940 – November 17, 2021) was an American sculptor, essayist and poet. 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. Durham also received the Günther-Peill-Preis, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Robert Rauschenberg Award (2017), and the 58th Venice Biennale's Golden Lion for lifetime achievement (2019).

He long claimed to be Cherokee but that claim has been denied by tribal representatives: "Durham is neither enrolled nor eligible for citizenship in any of the three federally-recognized and historical Cherokee Tribes: the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians of Oklahoma, and the Cherokee Nation." He had "no known ties to any Cherokee community". in Houston, Harris County, Texas, or Washington, Hempstead County, Arkansas. His parents were Jerry Loren Durham and Ethel Pauline Simmons Durham, In 1965 he moved to Austin, where he worked at the University of Texas at Austin and started exhibiting his work. His first solo exhibition in Austin was in 1965. In 1969 Durham moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where he studied at L'École des Beaux-Arts.

In 1974, he attended International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) conference at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. He later became chief administrator of the IITC and worked toward the United Nations granting the IITC status as a "Category II nongovernmental organization observer and consultant under the Economic and Social Council." Durham befriended Winona LaDuke (White Earth Ojibwe) and encouraged her activism. Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche) and Durham resigned from the IITC and AIM in 1979 over disagreements about AIM's support of Cuba and other Soviet allies.

Art career

After moving to New York City, Durham focused his attention to visual art. He created sculptures that challenged conventional representations of North American Indians. He exhibited and published essays frequently. From 1981 to 1983 he directed the Foundation for the Community of Artists in New York. In 1983 West End Press published Columbus Day, a book of his poems. His poetry was included in Harper's Anthology of 20th Century Native American Poetry (1988).

In 1987, Durham moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico. In 2016 he was awarded the Goslarer Kaiserring.

In 1995 Phaidon Press published Jimmie Durham, a comprehensive survey of his art, with contributions by Laura Mulvey, Dirk Snauwaert, and Mark Alice Durant.

In 2003, a retrospective of his work, titled From the West Pacific to the East Atlantic, was shown at MAC in Marseille, France, and at GEM in The Hague, The Netherlands.

In 2009, Durham had a retrospective titled Pierre Rejetées... at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in Paris, France.

In 2012, another retrospective, A Matter of Life and Death and Singing, curated by Bart De Baere and Anders Kreuger, was shown at MuHKA in Antwerp, Belgium.

In 2017 the retrospective Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World, curated by Anne Ellegood, opened at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and traveled to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, and Remai Modern in Saskatoon.

Claims of Cherokee identity Durham claimed to be "Wolf Clan Cherokee". He claimed to be quarter-blood Cherokee and to have grown up in a Cherokee-speaking community.

In June 2017, ten Cherokee tribal representatives, artists, and scholars published an open letter about Durham, titled, "Dear Unsuspecting Public, Jimmie Durham Is a Trickster – Jimmie Durham's indigenous identity has always been a fabrication and remains one": and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

Death Durham died on November 17, 2021, in Berlin, Germany, at the age of 81. He was survived by his partner, artist Maria Thereza Alves.