John Hitchcock

The artworks for Horse Songs were created to honor, remember, and respect the Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne people and their horses.

Horse Songs consists of sculptural horse masks and works on paper. I screen-print and paint on a variety of materials such as Naugahyde, felt and paper. The images I use are abstract representations of what’s above, on and below the land. While painting, drawing and printing, I am thinking about how we contribute to society and the challenges we face currently and in our future. I consider the importance of place, being grounded with oneself and our quest to discover more about who we are as a people. I’m looking at the stars as the future, present and the past.

– John Hitchcock

A contemporary artist and musician of Comanche, Kiowa and Northern European descent, John Hitchcock’s multimedia works use visual storytelling to understand his relationship to community, land and culture. Abstract representations, language and intense color reference his Kaku’s (Comanche grandmother’s) beadwork and childhood memories of growing up in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma on Comanche Tribal lands next to the US field artillery military base Ft. Sill.

Hitchcock holds a MFA from Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas and BFA from Cameron University, Lawton, Oklahoma. He is the recipient of The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Grant, New York, Jerome Foundation Grant, Minnesota; and others. He is currently the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he teaches screen-printing, relief cut, and installation art.