Artist:

Walter Ufer, born Louisville, KY 1876-died Santa Fe, NM 1936  Search this

Medium:

oil on canvas

Dimensions:

50 1/2 x 50 1/2 in. (128.4 x 128.4 cm.)

Type:

Painting

Date:

ca. 1926

Gallery Label:

This painting captures an everyday, yet deeply poetic moment among New Mexico's Pueblo Indians. Ufer was a German émigré who brought to America an intense sympathy for ordinary people instilled in him by his socialist family. He did not romanticize his sitters, because he understood that the Indian "resents being regarded as a curiosity—as a dingleberry on a tree." The two men on horseback pay their respects to a woman who lives, like millions of Americans, behind a picket fence. Their costumes show that they have held on to their tribal culture. Not long after Anglo Americans had effectively reduced the Pueblo tribes to touristic curiosities, Ufer quietly underscored the human dignity of a timeless ritual of courtship.Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006

Topic:

Figure group  Search this

Indian  Search this

Figure female\full length  Search this

Equestrian  Search this

Credit Line:

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. R. Crosby Kemper, Jr.

Object number:

1984.66

Restrictions & Rights:

CC0

See more items in:

Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection

Department:

Painting and Sculpture

On View:

Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2nd Floor, North Wing

Data Source:

Smithsonian American Art Museum

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk74d034e2a-60af-4cd7-9f72-5aac6284461b

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:saam_1984.66