1945-2026
Jean LaMarr, an acclaimed artist, educator, printmaker, muralist, and advocate for Native artists began her journey to the Spirit World on Saturday, August 1, 2026.
Jean developed an early passion for art that transformed contemporary Native American art that honored her Indigenous identity, challenged all stereotypes, and inspired a generation of artists. Her paintings and prints are held by major museum collections in cities throughout the United States.
Jean was born in 1945 and raised in Susanville, CA, by Leonard LaMarr, Pit River (Illmawi, Aporige, and Atsugewi Bands) and Esther Webster La Marr, Northern Paiute (Wadatika Band).
Upon high school graduation, Jean relocated to the Bay Area through the Federal Indian Relocation Program, where she became part of a vibrant urban Indian community. These experiences shaped her ideas that art could strengthen Indigenous identities, inform the public, educate and inspire social change.
After graduating San Jose City College, she transferred to UC Berkeley, where she received a degree in the Bachelor’s of Arts (BA).
Upon graduation, Jean began teaching art throughout California at several institutions, such as San Francisco State University, California College of the Arts, Laney College and developed Title IV programs for youth focusing on art. She completed her teaching career at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM, where she taught printmaking and mentored countless emerging Native artists. Jean returned to Susanville in the mid-1990s to create the Native American Graphic Workshop to bring together a collaboration of youth, elders, story tellers and artists to learn printmaking while strengthening their own cultural traditions.
Throughout her career, Jean combined bold color, indigenous humor, storytelling, and cultural symbolism to portray Native people as contemporary, resilient, and fully engaged in modern life. She also created public murals, including ‘Our Ancestors, Our Future’ (1985) in Susanville, and ‘The Ohlone Journey’ (a four-sided mural) (1995) in Berkeley, CA.
Jean’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally throughout the world. Her art was featured at the Museum of Modern Art, the Heard Museum, the Nevada Museum of Art and the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.
In 2022, the Nevada Museum of Art presented the first major retrospective of her career, accompanied by a scholarly book celebrating more than fifty years of artistic achievement. In 2025, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Jean is survived by her Son, Rory Keith LaMarr, her grandchildren, Leilani Shaw, Leonardo LaMarr, Rory LaMarr Jr., and Sayuri Yazzie; sisters Janet Crutcher and Cindy LaMarr, and numerous extended family members, friends, students, and colleagues.
Jean LaMarr’s enduring legacy lives on through her art, her public murals, and most importantly the generations of Native artists she encouraged to find their own identity and voices. She believed that art could preserve memory, strengthen identities and build communities as her life’s work remains a lasting impact on society.
There will be a memorial service on Saturday, August 15th at the Joaquin Memorial Gymnasium on Joaquin Street in Susanville, California at 1:00 pm.
