Clarence Boyce Monegar

Seeking quality artwork by Clarence Boyce Monegar. Contact: info@GalleryofWisconsinArt.com

BORN: April 10, 1910 - Wittenberg, Wisconsin

DIED: July 16, 1968.

Clarence Boyce Monegar was a Native American born into a family that knew desperate poverty and hardship. In 1918 influenza invaded the country, wiping out many in the Winnebago tribe including Clarence’s father and four siblings, but Clarence, his mother and two brothers, survived.  All three brothers demonstrated exceptional artistic talent but Clarence stood out.  His mother encouraged and taught him as she designed, wove and decorated baskets. Although Monegar took some early lessons, Clarence was essentially a self taught artist.  Gifted with a photographic memory, he had been trained by his artist mother in the way of their culture.  She taught Clarence to observe keenly, pay acute attention and always be watchful. 

He attended the Parochial Indian School in Wittenberg and the Indian School in Tomah where he was highly encouraged. His paintings exhibited great attention to small detail - whether a scar or wrinkle in the face of an Indian Chief or the subtle colors and patterns of feathers on a pheasant.  He returned to Wittenberg for high school but dropped out after the first year to help support his mother and brothers.

But drawing and painting did not put food on the table and Clarence’s passion for art died while he chopped wood, picked cranberries, worked at odd jobs to support himself and his family. At 16, Clarence ran off with a circus.  He performed as part of the Wild West show that traveled throughout the country. But Clarence had never been far from home and missed it very much.  Riding the rails, he returned home declaring that he had "gotten the circus out of his system."

Back in the Black River Falls area Clarence found work as a sign painter for store fronts and truck doors.  His reputation as an artist spread, and in 1932 he married Emma Stacy, the daughter of a prominent native American family.  Encouraged by Emma, he began drawing again  Their family thrived until catastrophe struck Clarence’s life again.  Emma contracted tuberculosis and passed away in 1942, leaving him with four young children.  The responsibility of a family was overwhelming and he drifted. 

Traditional tribal custom sometimes dictates replacement marriages and Clarence would have married Emma’s sister, Tilly Stacy. Tilly’s sense of loyalty to her sister and her sister’s children put her in a position of accepting Clarence as her husband.  She loved the children and provided a home for them.  But Clarence deserted his family, leaving them at a time when they needed their father the most.  He lost his job as a sign painter, drifted, drank and didn’t support his children or his new wife.  He landed in jail for non-support of his kin and public drunkenness.  

Passing time in jail, Clarence penciled sketches of wild life scenes.  The jailers, sheriff and district attorney amazed at his ability and provided him with paints, brushes and paper.  The district attorney was so impressed that he paroled Clarence into his own care and drove him to UW-Madison to see the noted regionalist artist, John Steuart Curry. Curry was Wisconsin's artist in residence, and he hoped that Curry would recognize Monegar’s talent and help turn his art into a lucrative occupation.  Curry was so impressed that he wrote to his dealer in New York, Reeves Lowenthal of Associated American Artists.  Curry introduced Monegar to lithography and it was his painting named Feeding Grouse that the dealer accepted and sold in an edition of sixty. 

Curry mentored Monegar, and he became a member of the Wisconsin Regional Artist Association (WRAA) / Wisconsin Rural Arts Program (WRAP). He introduced him to the annual Rural Arts Show - where he sold everything he submitted.  During this time Clarence started signing his drawings with a small arrowhead after his name, symbolic of his Native American heritage. This ended in 1945 when Clarence Monegar was drafted into the army to serve as an ambulance driver.

Clarence returned to Black River Falls in May, 1946.  His wife, Tilly was caring for his four children from the previous marriage as well as her son John born in 1944 with Clarence. But family responsibility was not part of Clarence’s vocabulary and again he deserted his family.  Clarence reverted back to his earlier pastime of drinking and drifting, painting and peddling.

The next step in his career was attending the Chicago Art Institute on the G.I. Bill.  There, he refined his water color techniques and gained a better understanding of other mediums.  He was introduced to silk screening while working briefly with a commercial art company, but lithography continued to be his specialty.  

Monegar's painting changed very little over the course of his life.  Running deer, wild geese, ducks rising from the water, fish breaking  to escape the creel capture the energy and the recollections of the sounds and scents of Wisconsin's forests, lakes and streams.  Clarence’s trademark was a large white birch tree, flying grouse and marsh grass.

Many people recognized his talent while others bought his art thinking they were helping him earn a living for his family. But the audience for wildlife paintings dwindled and Clarence’s mentor Curry had passed.  Clarence left Chicago, spent time in Milwaukee and went back to Black River Falls.  He grew away from his people.  His children would not talk to him or about him.  He continued his drinking, drifting, painting and peddling lifestyle.  He would paint in the attic of his house in Black River Falls, or if he was in Milwaukee, at his flat near Layton School of Art.    

It is estimated that he painted over 8,000 pictures and peddled them himself going door to door, shop to shop, tavern to tavern.  Even though Clarence wore glasses, by the end of his life he painted using a magnifying glass.  He was able to maintain the minute detail he was noted for but some of his paintings appeared incomplete.

Clarence married again and had five more children!  He remained married to his third wife, Melba until his death, July 16, 1968 at the age of 58.  

Today, Monegar's work is highly collected. His paintings hang on the walls of wildlife enthusiasts, hunters, collectors, as well as hunting shacks and lake cottages across Wisconsin. 

Monegar is included in John Rector Barton's book, Rural Artists of Wisconsin, 1948.

Photo credit: John Rector Barton, Rural Artists of Wisconsin (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1948), 105.