Modern Times

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, artist

Cultural affiliations: Enrolled Salish, member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation of Montana, Cree, Salish, Shoshone, Interior Salish, Flathead

1940–2025

Modern Times, 1994

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: color lithograph

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 765 x 573 mm
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 30 1/8 x 22 9/16 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 36 1/4 x 30 1/4 x 1 in
Weight (Weight): 12 lbs

Credit line: Museum purchase

Accession number: 1994.0047

Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Native Fashion

This work explores assimilation, or the process of one ethnic group being absorbed by another. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith modifies an ad for apples depicting a headdressed Indian to be wearing a business suit and holding a briefcase. “Apple” is a derogatory slang term for people who are “red on the outside and white on the inside.” It is used primarily for “city Indians” who are disconnected from their culture, often because they did not grow up on reservations with their communities.

Spencer Museum of Art Highlights

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s sharp sense of humor comes through in her print “Modern Times,” which explores assimilation, or the process of one ethnic group being absorbed by another. Her stylized advertisement for apples references the derogatory saying that an assimilated Native person is like an apple, red on the outside but white on the inside. Disagreements within the Native community about what authentic Native representation looks like are complicated. Many Native Americans are disconnected from their cultural heritage because they were removed from their communities. By tackling assimilation and stereotyping, Smith questions what it means to be Native.

American Dream

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith explores contradictions in the American Dream by coupling a traditional Native American feathered war bonnet with a conventionally suited businessman, briefcase in hand. The juxtaposition of collaged images raises questions about the pressures to assimilate into American society and the struggles experienced by indigenous communities to maintain cultural customs while taking part in the modern world.
—Lori Fifield

Archive Label 2003:
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s work comments on the transformation of today’s Native Americans. Many Native Americans are losing sight of their traditions and ways. Her works express how American Indians must keep a foot in both the modern and traditional worlds to survive as a culture and a race. Quick-to-See Smith says, “I’ve used large identifiable Indian icons that have been romanticized by movies, novels, and the media.” But up close, the viewer gets a reading of a different story about Indian life, on and off the reservation.

Exhibition Label:
American Indian Art at the Spencer Museum
Sept 6 - Oct 19-2003
Jaune Quick-To-See Smith’s work questions the assumptions made about American Indians through incorporating Anglo stereotypes and symbols in her work. In this print the label for a brand of apples is used for the head (with its feather headdress) of a figure wearing suit and carrying a briefcase.