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work of the month: January 2000

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (American, b.1940)
Trade (Gifts For Trading Land With White People), 1992
Oil and mixed media on Canvas
60 x 170 inches
Museum Purchase 1993

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"I think people often can hear a message with humor much easier than with bitterness." Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

Trade (Gifts for Trading Land With White People) pays homage to Native American art techniques and traditions through very contemporary art media. Blending traditional Native American symbols with the influences of such modern artists as Jasper Johns, Jim Dine, and Pablo Picasso, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith addresses current issues that affect her people and her heritage. But the links between past and present here suggest ironic humor.

Focus on the items Smith uses to form Trade for a moment -- commercial trinkets, newspaper clippings, photographs, oil paint, and canvas -- and see if you can decipher the ironic twists of meaning. What common characteristic s do the trinkets hanging on the chain share? Why did the artist choose each newspaper clipping and photograph for her patchwork collage? Why has she applied red paint in such a drippy style, and what does the canoe outline represent? Answering these questions will reveal more clearly Smith's quietly ironic political commentary on the Native American experience.

Many art critics view Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's work as a bridge between past and present cultures. "I look at line, form, color, texture in contemporary art as well as viewing old Indian artifacts in the same way," says the artist. "I make parallels from the old-world to contemporary art." Much of her work gently, yet firmly, depicts her interpretation of political hot-button issues such as environmental deterioration, health care, AIDS, gender, and race. Take a few minutes to decide how Trade speaks to such political commentary.

How do the items hanging from the chain above the canvas add to this discussion? Do the items remind you of a realistic Native American experience, or do they convey a stereotyped interpretation? What related memories or images do the items evoke in you? How are these items used as "trading pieces" today? Compare these modern symbols with a traditional Indian vehicle of trade -- the canoe.

Not surprisingly, Smith created Trade within a series of related works during the "Quincentennary of America," the year celebrating the anniversary of Columbus' voyage to America. She satirically calls the year 1992, "the year that tourism began," and much of her work of that time period expressly addresses issues related to the exploitation of Native American people. Smith draws first-hand compassionate and emotional conclusions on the American Indian experience based on her own Salish, French-Cree, and Shoshone heritage.

Born in St. Ignatius, Montana and a member of the Flathead Reservation, Smith explains: "Our tribe has a long history -- at least 10,000 years in Montana where we're noted for our trading abilities. In my own family, my great-great-grandmother, great-grandmother, grandmother and my father were all involved in trading. My father, a horse trader, was raised by these women, and I was raised by my father. As I paint, travel, go between two worlds and carry messages, I believe I am an extension of this age-old process."

Smith is often considered a spokesperson for other Native American artists. She curated the first traveling exhibition of American Indian photography in 1982, and the first traveling exhibition of Native American female artists in the next year. She also assisted in the designing of a Cultural Museum on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, and has served as a board member for several university groups in the southwest dedicated to the encouragement and preservation of Native American art and culture.

But how does the artist's work honor her heritage in its own right? In the same way her ancestors decorated animal hides and fabric with dyed porcupine quills and beads, Smith uses symbolic decoration, but with a contemporary twist. Note the newspaper clippings, for example. What does each headline, each photograph, tell you about Native American culture on modern reservations? Do you see a connection between Smith's use of newspaper, paint, and assemblage in the same way traditional bead workers might weave patterns to tell stories of bravery, sorrow, or victory? Native American Plains artists rubbed earthy pigments into animal skins, while Smith's paint and canvas achieve the same markings of storytelling.

Yet, Smith's training in Abstract Expressionism while earning her Master of Art at the University of New Mexico has given a more modern painterly quality to her work. Compare Smith's dripping red paint with Jackson Pollock's rendering entitled Number 23, 1951 (Frogman) that is also part of the Chrysler's permanent collection. Interestingly, Pollock himself felt the influence of traditional Navajo sand painting. How does the dripping quality of the paint enrich the emotion of both works? Pollock believed that the process of painting often was more important than the product itself. But in Trade, Smith achieves a balance between process and product. She enjoys the steps of creating, but she also wants the viewer to understand the clear message behind the final masterpiece. If you were rendering your own cultural experience on canvas, what emotions and experiences would influence the process?

"Art between two cultures is difficult without losing oneself in the process," says Smith. But many critics say the artist's work spans the gap. Smith combines age-old traditions with modern techniques and insights to bridge the past and present.

"A culture that is producing art -- blending new forms with old traditions -- is still flowering," Smith explains. "No matter how the art is viewed by outsiders, within the culture itself it is seen as a sign of vitality and as a celebration of life. Indian people expressed their artistic creation through functional objects," says Smith. "We have always used what came across our path and made something of it. And we still do this today."

Julie Jenkins Strohkorb

References/Resources

Clark, Trinkett. "Jaune Quick-to-See Smith." Parameters #9, edited by Sally Kirby Hartman. Norfolk: Teagle & Little, 1993.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. New York: Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, 1992.

McConnel, Gordon. "Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Translations Between Two Worlds." Northern Lights, edited by Dan Whipple. Missoula: Northern Lights Research and Education Institute, 1987.

Videos

"Jaune Quick-to-See Smith," produced by Jack Peterson. Lincoln, Nebraska: Native American Public Broadcasting Consortium, 1984.

"American Indian Artists II: Jaune Quick-to-See Smith." Lincoln, Nebraska: Native American Public Broadcasting Consortium, 1982.

Websites

http://www.nmwa.org/library/bibs/jqsmith.htm
http://www.nmwa.org/legacy/bios/bjqsmith.htm
http://www.artincontext.org/new_york/steinbaum_krauss_gallery/