Joseph Yoakum
1890–1972
Introduction
Official records note that Yoakum was born in Missouri in 1890, but he claimed to have been born in Arizona, in 1888, as a Navajo Indian on the Window Rock Navajo reservation. He did not begin producing work seriously until the 1960s, when he began producing stylized landscapes with pen, pencil, and watercolor. He was one of the self-taught artists who greatly inspired the Chicago Imagists, and The Hairy Who artists.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, naive artist, painter
ULAN identifier
500001772
Names
Joseph E. Yoakum, Joseph Yoakum
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed October 7, 2025.