native americansalishpaintingmixed media
Date
1994
Medium
Oil paint, oil stick and mixed media collage (synthetic medium with fabric and various cut and torn papers including newsprint, photomechanical prints, and magazine pages) on canvas
Dimensions
152.8 × 127.4 cm (60 1/8 × 50 1/8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Jan and Frank Cicero
Over her groundbreaking, 50-year career, Salish artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith explored contemporary American society with humor and imagination. Both qualities fuel her 1994 painting Indian Orator, whose central figure wears a striking blue robe and a horned headdress with eagle feathers, a mark of honor in many Native nations. In the background, collaged materials—magazine ads, newspaper clippings, prints, and fabric—are visible through warm-toned paint that Smith brushed and dripped onto the surface. The text and images juxtapose Native community life with external stereotypes of Native culture. Like her painted orator, Smith told playful, critical tales of an absurd world.
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