Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, What is an American?, 2003
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
French-Cree / Shoshone / Salish, 1940 - 2025
What is an American?, 2003
lithograph with chine collé, paper, acrylic, metal grommets, edition 15 of 20
editioned lower left: 15/20
signed lower right: Jqts Smith
published by Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, New Brunswick, New Jersey
printed by Eileen M. Foti
Per the artist, the print is designed to resemble a parfleche, a Plains Indians packet/pouch which can carry, among other things, a message.
69 x 40 in. (175.3 x 101.6 cm.)
Brodsky Center at PAFA (previously Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper), the publisher
Private Collection
Literature:
Laura Phipps, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2023, pp. 47, 123, pl. 52
Created after September 11, 2001, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s What Is an American? questions national identity and patriotism by confronting the historical mistreatment of Indigenous peoples. Folded like a traditional parfleche carrying case, the print combines Indigenous imagery, a hand bleeding red, white, and blue, and sardonic text to critique racism, consumerism, and corporate culture. Government food labels also introduce questions of poverty, revealing how viewers’ economic experiences shape their understanding of the work.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith was a groundbreaking Native American painter, printmaker, curator, and activist and an enrolled citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Raised on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, she developed a distinctive visual language combining abstraction, maps, commercial imagery, text, and Indigenous symbols to address land, colonialism, environmental stewardship, and contemporary Native identity. Smith was also an influential advocate and curator who created greater visibility for generations of Indigenous artists. Her five-decade career was celebrated in the Whitney Museum’s major 2023 retrospective, Memory Map.
Condition
A condition report for this lot is available upon request (please include the lot number in your request) and is provided by Santa Fe Art Auction as a courtesy and convenience for potential buyers.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
French-Cree / Shoshone / Salish, 1940 - 2025
What is an American?, 2003
lithograph with chine collé, paper, acrylic, metal grommets, edition 15 of 20
editioned lower left: 15/20
signed lower right: Jqts Smith
published by Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, New Brunswick, New Jersey
printed by Eileen M. Foti
Per the artist, the print is designed to resemble a parfleche, a Plains Indians packet/pouch which can carry, among other things, a message.
69 x 40 in. (175.3 x 101.6 cm.)
Brodsky Center at PAFA (previously Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper), the publisher
Private Collection
Literature:
Laura Phipps, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2023, pp. 47, 123, pl. 52
Created after September 11, 2001, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s What Is an American? questions national identity and patriotism by confronting the historical mistreatment of Indigenous peoples. Folded like a traditional parfleche carrying case, the print combines Indigenous imagery, a hand bleeding red, white, and blue, and sardonic text to critique racism, consumerism, and corporate culture. Government food labels also introduce questions of poverty, revealing how viewers’ economic experiences shape their understanding of the work.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith was a groundbreaking Native American painter, printmaker, curator, and activist and an enrolled citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Raised on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, she developed a distinctive visual language combining abstraction, maps, commercial imagery, text, and Indigenous symbols to address land, colonialism, environmental stewardship, and contemporary Native identity. Smith was also an influential advocate and curator who created greater visibility for generations of Indigenous artists. Her five-decade career was celebrated in the Whitney Museum’s major 2023 retrospective, Memory Map.
Condition
A condition report for this lot is available upon request (please include the lot number in your request) and is provided by Santa Fe Art Auction as a courtesy and convenience for potential buyers.
