Ray Swanson (American, 1937 to 2004)
Primarily known for his sensitive portrayal of the native people of the American Southwest, Ray Swanson spent his artistic career in far-ranging travels to depict everyday scenes in an extraordinary manner. He held a deep fascination for the many ways in which people from different cultures shared common concerns.
Swanson grew up on a farm in South Dakota and developed an appreciation and respect for hardworking people who went about their daily tasks of providing for their families with little fanfare or recognition. He translated that respect into the many portraits he produced of the daily lives of people from a wide variety of cultures. In 1976, he made his first trip to the Arctic Circle, drawn there by his interest in the centuries-old connection between the Navajo and the people of the Far North. Of that trip, he said, “All the evidence seems to indicate that the Eskimos and the Navajos were connected in the past. I was intrigued with the opportunity to paint the primitive and difficult Eskimo lifestyle that was rapidly giving way to modernization.”
Swanson traveled extensively in the region, including the remote Bering Sea island of Little Diomede where he painted several people in the village of Shishmaref.
Information courtesy of Heritage Auctions Galleries, July 2009.
Ray Swanson was born in the small farming community of Alcester, South Dakota in 1937 where he attended classes in a one-room schoolhouse. After Ray’s father was tragically killed, the family moved to California. In college he studied engineering, and worked for several years as a draftsman and civil engineer. It was during this time he married Beverly, his high school sweetheart.
As a young man Ray was given oils and other art supplies belonging to his grandfather. Self-taught, he proved to be a talented painter. After Ray’s marriage, he and his brother Gary opened a gift shop selling their artwork along with Navajo and Hopi crafts. After several years, Ray relocated in Prescott, Arizona where his friends on the reservation were only a few hours away. He now was a full-time painter permanently under the spell of the Southwest.
In 1986, Ray was inducted into the Cowboy Artists of America and was serving as its President at the time of his death in 2004. For over 40 years Ray Swanson spent time among the native people in Arizona and was highly respected and accepted by them. Members of one Navajo family whom Ray often painted attended his funeral. Dressed in their finery, they followed the casket of this gentle man into the church and covered it with a traditional chief’s blanket.
“The people I paint are my friends. I have been there with them so many years,” he said. “I have pursued their way of life, rather than my interpretation of their lives. The clothing and activities I place them in have become history in my lifetime. I have seen more things than the average person ever gets to see.”