Trade Canoe for Don Quixote

Trade Canoe for Don Quixote

2004
Artist
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, 1940-
Born: St. Ignatius, MT
Work Locations: New Mexico
Culture
Salish | Kootenai | Metis | Shoshone
Object
painting
Medium
Mixed media on canvas, including acrylic, pencil, charcoal and oil
Accession Number
2005.62A-D
Credit Line
William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen Collection at the Denver Art Museum, by exchange

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Trade Canoe for Don Quixote, 2004. Acrylic, pencil, charcoal, and oil on canvas; 200 x 60 in. Denver Art Museum Collection: William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen Collection, by exchange, 2005.62A-D © Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith and courtesy Garth Greenan Gallery, New York

Dimensions
height: 60 in, 152.4000 cm; length: 200 in, 508.0000 cm
Department
Native Arts
Collection
Indigenous Arts of North America

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith references the American government’s policies on Native Americans. Smith drew inspiration from Pablo Picasso’s Guernica (1937) and the work of Mexican political lithographer José Guadalupe Posada for her work. By using historical imagery associated with war and an oversize canoe, Smith directly questions continued American military activity in Iraq and the impacts of colonialism, consumerism, and globalization.

Known Provenance
Created by the artist, 2004; Purchased by the Denver Art Museum, 2005.
Exhibition History
  • Jaune Quick-to-See Smith Retrospective at the Whitney, opening April 19, 2023 and traveling to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth fall 2023, Seattle Art Museum spring 2024.

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