Imperial Valley in Imperial County near Karboul Mounds California

Joseph E. Yoakum, Imperial Valley in Imperial County near Karboul Mounds California, 1966, colored pencil and ballpoint pen on paper, 11 ⁷⁄₈ x 17 ⁷⁄₈ in. (30.3 x 45.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr., and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, 1986.65.223

Artwork Details

Title: Imperial Valley in Imperial County near Karboul Mounds California
Artist: Joseph E. Yoakum
Date: 1966
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 11 ⁷⁄₈ x 17 ⁷⁄₈ in. (30.3 x 45.3 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr., and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson
Mediums: ink
pencil
Mediums Description: colored pencil and ballpoint pen on paper
Classifications: Drawing
Subjects: Landscape — California — Imperial County
Landscape — mountain — Karboul Mounds
Landscape — valley — Imperial Valley
Object Number: 1986.65.223
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1986.65.223

Artwork Description

Joseph Yoakum was born in 1890 with both African American and Native American ancestry and in his own words, "was born knowing how to draw." He joined the circus when he was a young boy, caring for the horses. He loved life on the road and worked for a number of the big railroad shows, including Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West and the Ringling Brothers circus. After serving in World War I, Yoakum led an itinerant life until settling near family in Chicago in the late 1930s. Yoakum said a dream led him to drawing the many landscapes he had seen, which he did in in a stylized fusion of the real and the fantastic. Of them he said, "My drawings are a spiritual unfoldment."