Survival

1996

Survival, 1996. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (American, 1940-). Color lithograph; sheet: 91.4 x 61 cm (36 x 24 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 2022.98.1 For the past five decades, artist and activist Jaune Quick-To-See Smith has developed a distinctive, collage-based style combining Indigenous stories and symbols with references to canonical modern art history to suggest a place for Indigenous culture within contemporary art. This print belongs to a series of four, each of which references a value that Smith feels has protected and guided her tribe through years of challenges and trauma. Expressive lithographic marks are layered over found popular and artistic imagery to suggest such ongoing resilience. Jaune Quick-To-See Smith has described artworks such as this print as having a personal significance—comprising, in her words, “a diary, or journal, of my life.”