A Chart of the Human Body

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith is an acclaimed contemporary Native American painter and printmaker, as well as a leading social activist. Her work centers on themes such as cultural assimilation, Native American traditions, and interactions and conflict between Native Americans and Euro-Americans. This lithograph, inspired by anatomical charts, features a stylized image of a human torso that has identifier lines that lead to images (rather than anatomical terms). Some of the images relate to traditional Native American culture, while others reference the natural world or the impact of Euro-American culture (barcode and bicycle). Thouigh Quick-to-See Smith surely intends the work as a commentary on the potentially destructive nature of the Euro-American traditions on Native peoples (a target is placed over the heart), she also suggests that we are all comprised of a mixture of traditions.