Inventory for Navajo Artist Robert Draper (1938-2000)
Robert Draper (originally Robert Martin) was born near Chinle, Arizona, in 1938. His mother Janet Descheeny (Navajo) and his father Frank Martin (Hopi and Laguna) gave Robert up at about the age of two when Robert started living with his grandparents. When he was eight he enter the Chinle Boarding School (1947-1951) where his name was changed to Draper. Later he transferred to the Intermountain Indian School (1951-1956) in Brigham City, Utah, which he attended for four years. Having been interested in art since he was a small boy Draper received admission to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe where he could concentrate on art. Draper tended to work in two media, oil and watercolor. Robert Draper differed from many of the earlier Navajo artists (for instance Gerald Nailor, Quincy Tahoma, Harrison Begay, etc.) by painting in a form that was less flat, utilized perspective, and employed shadow. Draper spent most of his life living on the Navajo Nation - a place he showed great empathy for and depicted in his many works.
References: Draper is listed in a variety of volumes including Indian Painter and White Patron (Brody 1971:185, Figure 87), Enduring Traditions: Art of the Navajo (Jacka and Jacka 1994), The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters (Lester 1995:156), American Indian Painters: A Biographical Directory (Snodgrass 1968:50), and Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art (Tanner 1995:82, 368-371.)
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"Canyon Lands" circa 1980, Watercolor.
"Navajo Camp" circa 1980, Watercolor.
"Monument Valley" circa 1980's, Watercolor.
