Collector's Corner
JAUNE QUICK-TO-SEE SMITH: Remembering a Giant of American Art
Mar
As a person and as an artist, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith was a force to be reckoned with. A powerful voice, she did not shy away from controversy. Jaune knew that no nation was ever perfect and, though she loved our country, she was not afraid to point out its flaws and historic misuses of power. Though history is complex and often messy, Jaune’s work confronted problematic subjects and themes head-on – disease, war, loss of land, loss of culture, Genocide, and environmentalism.
Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, SAGE AND SWEETGRASS-1989-Oil on canvas -Copyright 2009, Indiana University Art Museum: Gift of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York; Hassam, Speicher, Betts and Symons Funds, 1993 (#93.6). Photographers: Michael Cavanagh and Kevin Montague.
I first encountered the work of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith in the summer of 2009 when I visited the Indiana University Art Museum in Bloomington. At the very end of the section titled Art of the Western World: Early Medieval to the Present I came upon the artist’s Sage and Sweetgrass. The painting, completed in 1989, intentionally resembles a collage, the paint applied in broad strokes.
Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith, Trade Canoe for Don Quixote, 2004. Mixed media on canvas, including acrylic, pencil, charcoal and oil; 60 x 200 in. Denver Art Museum: William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen Collection, by exchange, 2005.62A-D. © Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Photography courtesy of the Denver Art Museum.
It wasn’t until 2015 that I again saw more of the artist’s work – Trade Canoe for Don Quixote, a massive mixed media painting on four panels at the Denver Art Museum. This work is a powerful indictment of war, a cargo that has been transported around the world throughout history.
Trade Canoe: A Western Fantasy by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Salish, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, MT, lithograph, 18/40; printed by Landfall Press, Santa Fe, NM; published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky, 21” x 30” (2015.). Collection of E. J. Guarino.
In August 2017 I had the privilege of meeting Jaune Quick-to-See Smith at Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art Gallery in Santa Fe at the opening of an exhibit of her son Neal Armstrong Smith’s work. At the time, the Coe Foundation for the Arts was presenting an exhibition of works on paper from my collection, including Trade Canoe: A Western Fantasy by Jaune. Lost for words, I mumbled something about the exhibit and bashfully handed Jaune the catalog for the Coe exhibit and my business card. In the fall, Jaune Emailed me and, always gracious, apologized for not having contacted me sooner. From that point on we began an ongoing Email correspondence in which we discussed many subjects – her work, family, art in general, opera, film, literature, education, history, cooking, gardening, and more.
A Trade Canoe for the North Pole (red state) by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Salish, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, MT, 3 color run lithograph, 15” x 22” (2017). Photo courtesy of the artist. Collection of E. J. Guarino
Although she made strong political statements, Jaune Quick-to-Smith’s work is not didactic. She took potentially explosive material and, through the use of irony, presented it in a humorous, accessible, non-threatening manner. In this way, the artist engaged the viewer with controversial subjects, addressing multiple social, political and historical issues. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith found ways to involve an audience, allowing for a discussion of difficult and often painful subjects.
Trade Canoe: We’re All in the Same Canoe by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Salish, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, MT, lithograph printed in graphite ink with hand coloring by the artist, edition of 20, 20”x15” (2017).
The influences on Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s art are rich and diverse: Salish and Kootenai symbolism and stylistic elements, the work of George Caleb Bingham, Frederic Edwin Church, Albert Bierstadt, Emanuel Leutze, Phillip Guston, Picasso, Kandinsky, Klee, Miró, Dubuffet, art movements such as Surrealism, Cubism and Constructivism, and elements of abstraction and representation often together. She produced paintings, drawings, prints, mix-media pieces, and, in collaboration with her son Neil Armstrong Smith, sculpture – all of which explore a wide range of themes.
Matriarch by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Salish, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, MT, lithograph, 12/15, 19” x 15” (2022). Printed by Josh Osborn. Collection of E. J. Guarino.
Jaune Quick-to-See’s Trade Canoe Series is among her most celebrated works. It was a subject to which she continued to return over the course of many years. It was an ongoing investigation of social, historical, and moral themes that were important to the artist. Boats have always transported people and goods, and with the,m their concepts and beliefs. In her Trade Canoe Serie,s Jaune Quick-to-See extended the metaphor of a ship representing the human voyage by filling her vessels with all manner of symbols. The compelling imagery transforms the trade canoes into vessels that carry ideas.
Jaune Quick-to-See’s body of work is rich and complex. In a variety of media, she confronted topics that were not addressed by other American artists: genocidal acts against Native Americans, the intentional killing of the American bison almost to the point of extinction, environmental issues, indictments of war, and the false narratives created and promoted about Native Americans and the West.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith was not only a success as an artist but, more importantly, she was a success as a person and she had a profound effect on everyone who met her. She fought for causes in which she believed, curated exhibitions, wrote articles, and advocated for the work of other artists. For those of us who were privileged to call Jaune friend, her loss is particularly painful.
For more on Jaune Quick-to-See’s art, see the following articles:
“Ship of Fools: Jaune Quick-to-See’s Trade Canoe Series”
https://kinggalleries.com/ship-fools-jaune-quicktosee-smiths-trade-canoe-series/
“And the Ship Sails On: More on Jaune Quick-to-See’s Trade Canoe Series”
“Clothes For a Post Columbian World: Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s Paper Doll Series”
https://kinggalleries.com/clothes-for-a-post-columbian-world-jaune-quick-to-sees-paper-dolls-series/