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 G e r a l d    T a i l f e a t h e r s

b. 1925, Standoff  Reserve, Alberta
d. 1975
First Nations Affiliation:  Blood (Blackfoot)

Gerald Tailfeathers had extensive formal art training beginning at the Saint Mary's Lake Summer Art School, where he also came to know many Blood elders. In 1941, he studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts under the direction of Charles Comfort, Walter Phillips, and H.G. Glyde, moving the following year to the Provincial Institute of Art and Technology in Calgary for commercial design training. Despite the demands of his professional design work for the Hudson's Bay Company, and later responsibilities as a band council member, Tailfeathers was prolific in charcoals, pastels, watercolours, temperas, pen and inks as well as in oil. After 1957, he began to stress historical accuracy in his depictions of events of his people and received commissions for paintings for the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo '67 in Montréal, the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, and Canada Post. Before 1963 he signed his work Gerald T. Fethers.


R E C E N T   E X H I B I T I O N S

1992 Time for Dialogue.
Calgary, Alberta
1983 Contemporary Indian Art at Rideau Hall.
Ottawa, Ontario
1981 Tradition and Change in Contemporary Indian Art.
Edmonton Centre and Student Union Building, Edmonton, Alberta

O T H E R   E X H I B I T I O N    V E N U E S

Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Alberta
Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario
Calgary Stampede, Calgary, Alberta

 

S E L E C T E D   C O L L E C T I O N S

Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Québec
Centennial Museum, Vancouver, British Columbia
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Galt Museum, Lethbridge, Alberta
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario

 

S E L E C T E D   B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Canadian Museum of Civilization, ed. In the Shadow of the Sun: Perspectives on Contemporary Native Art. Hull, Québec: The Museum, 1993.

Cardinal-Schubert, Joane. Time for Dialogue: Contemporary Artists. Calgary, Alberta: Aboriginal Awareness Society, 1992.

Dempsey, Hugh A. Tailfeathers: Indian Artist. 2d ed. Art series; no. 2. Calgary, Alberta: Glenbow-Alberta Institute, 1978.

Faulknor, Cliff. The White Calf; The Story of Eagle Child, the Peigan Boy, Who Found a White Buffalo Calf Said to Have Been Sent by the Above Ones. Illustrated by Gerald Tailfeathers. Boston: Little, Brown, 1965.

Stebbins, Joan. Gerald Tailfeathers: Fifty Years. Lethbridge, Alberta: Southern Alberta Art Gallery, 1981.

 
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