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Indian with Feather
Accession # 71.134.2
Artist Fritz Scholder
Publisher Tamarind Institute
Title Indian with Feather
Date 1970-1971
Medium Lithograph on paper
Dimensions 30 1/4 x 22 in. (76.8 x 55.9 cm)
Marks Embossed with Tamarind chop lower left and with printers' chops lower center and lower right
Signed Signed lower center in graphite: "Scholder"
Credit Line Bristol-Myers Fund
Location American Identities: Everyday Life / A Nation Divided
Description A side view of a standing Indian wrapped in a solid robe with only his head peering out. There is a grimace on his face. A singular feather projects out from his head to the edge of the print.

Curatorial Remarks: What is Native American art and who is a Native American artist? The artist Fritz Scholder referred to himself as a non-Indian Indian, someone who never felt the pull of two different cultures. With this lithograph series he challenges popular stereotypical depictions of Indians as stoic, noble, pure, and the embodiment of wisdom. Instead, he offers an amorphous human form, showing only a scruffy face with an open mouth, though the hint of a warrior breastplate, the wrapped braids, and the sharply angled feather suggest a Native American identity. The figure’s tightly wrapped blanket and his turned pose seem to reject empathy from the viewer.