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.

War Chant

“War Chant,” Popular Indian Chants(Chants populaires Indiens), Chief Oskomon with Paul Coze, Université de Paris, Institut de Phonétique, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, AP2078, n. X 9094, 04 Face B.

Jessica L. Horton, “Performing Paint, Claiming Space: The Santa Fe Indian School Posters on Paul Coze’s Stage in Paris, 1935” Transatlantica 2017 vol. 2, published May 2019, edited by Emily C. Burns and Agathe Cabau.