Horton Performing Paint

This gallery features reproductions of 61 extant posters drawn from the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris, and the Musée du quai Branly in Paris.

The posters were printed in Santa Fe, New Mexico and painted by Native American students enrolled in the Studio School, a fine arts program at the Santa Fe Indian School, in 1935. Two hundred such posters were sent to Paris to advertise an exhibition of 100 student paintings organized by the French artist Paul Coze, Art Peau-rouge d’aujourd’hui (Art of the Redskin Today) at the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro from May 17 to June 23, 1935.

Five extant posters were signed by the artists; the creators of eight additional posters are identified with reasonable certainty based upon the style and subject matter of the paintings.

Theme by Anders Norén.

Art Exhibition Poster with two dancing American Indian figures

A03 Artist Unknown

A3 Artist Unknown, poster announcing Art Peau-Rouge d’Aujourd’hui, 1935. Tempera on paper, 20 in. x 13 in., Inst-180. Gift of the Toyota Motor Corporation, 1992, courtesy of the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM. Based on the style and subject, this poster was almost certainly painted by Harrison Begay (Diné, c. 1917–2012). The Yeibicai, Diné holy beings who dance during the Nightway healing ceremony, are repeated in a 1935 painting, Yeibicai, reproduced in McGeough (104).

September 28, 2022
In Posters