Apache Pull-Toy

Bob Haozous, Chiricahua Apache / Diné / American, born 1943
Diné (Navajo)
Chiricahua Apache
Apache
Southwest

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1988

Painted steel

Overall: 54 × 48 × 16 in. (137.2 × 121.9 × 40.6 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Joseph B. Obering '56 Fund

S.989.17

Geography

Place Made: United States, North America

Period

20th century

Object Name

Sculpture

Research Area

Native American

Native American: Southwest

Sculpture

Not on view

Inscriptions

Not signed.

Label

Bob Haozous’s Apache Pull-Toy mocks the Indian-hating, gun-totin’ cowboy through the artist’s reduction of that American hero to a source of Indian amusement. The unseen Apache has control over a new game of "Cowboys and Indians."

During the Westernization of many countries, the killing of the natives was high sport. With this sculpture, I’ve placed the viewer into the frame of mind of the victim and target of this sport. This stereotyped blond, blue-eyed example of racial dominance with the "good guy" white hat serves as a reminder of our past insensitivities. The message isn’t intended to challenge or threaten, but to remind and reremind us of our common humanity. Apache Pull-Toy is a reversal of sensitivities that places the "white" man as a target for his own past and current misbehaviors. —Bob Haozous

From the 2019 exhibition Portrait of the Artist as an Indian / Portrait of the Indian as an Artist, guest curated by Rayna Green

Course History

WRIT 5, Expository Writing, William Craig, Winter 2014

NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2020

NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2021

Exhibition History

Bob Haozous, The Dartmouth Exhibition, Jaffe-Friede and Strauss Galleries, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 15-Spetember 17, 1989.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 2006-May 2007.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 22-November 18, 2000.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 25, 1995-May 27, 1996.

In Residence: Contemporary Art at Dartmouth, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 18-July 6, 2014.

Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 26,2009-March 15, 2010.

Native American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 8, 2011-March 12, 2012.

No Laughing Matter: Visual Humor in Ideas of Race, Nationality, and Ethnicity, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in conjunction with the Humanities Institute, Leslie Center for the Humanities, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 6-December 9, 2007.

Portrait of the Artist as an Indian / Portrait of the Indian as an Artist, Harteveldt Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-August 16, 2020.

Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the 20th Century, The Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona; April 13-July 28, 1991; The Eiteljorg Museum of American History and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, September-November 1991; The Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma, January-April 1992; The Oregon Art Institute, Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, June-August 1992; The Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, Minnesota, October 1992-January 1993; The International Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, May-September 1993; Canadian Museum of Civilization, Quebec, May-September 1994.

Survival/Art/History: American Indian Collections from the Hood Museum of Art, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 18, 2000-April 7, 2002.

Publication History

Rayna Green with Melanie Fernandez, Encyclopaedia of Native North America, London: British Museum Press,1999, 213 pp., checklist no. 131, ill. p. 81.

Arts and Culture, Dartmouth Now: Update for Students of Color, March 1996, ill. p. 3

Charles Sullivan, editor, Fathers and Children In Literature and Art, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1995, ill. p. 26

Upper Valley Magazine Preview of the Arts, Upper Valley Magazine, September/October 1995, Volume 9, No. 5, West Lebanon: Van Etten, Inc., p. 66

Margaret Archuleta and Dr. Rennard Strickland, Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the 20th Century, Phoenix, AZ: The Heard Museum, April 1991, p. 98.

Janice C. Buchanan and Patricia J. Chauvin, Expanding Horizons, Needham Heights, Massachusetts: Simon & Schuster Custom Publishing, 1998, ill. p. 401.

Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009, p.114, no.88.

George P. Horse Capture, Sr., Joe D. Horse Capture, Joseph M. Sanchez, et al., Native American Art at Dartmouth: Hightlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2011, ill. on p. 53 and p. 155, no. 76.

George P. Horse Capture, Sr., Joe D. Horse Capture, Joseph M. Sanchez, et al., Native American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2011, ill. on p. 105 and p. 155, no. 76.

Bob Haozous, The Dartmouth Exhibition, Santa Fe, New Mexico:: Rettig y Martinez Gallery and Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1989, plate 16.

Michael R. Taylor and Gerald Auten, In Residence: Contemporary Artists at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2013, ill. p. 79, no. 66

Provenance

Rettig y Martinez Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico; sold to pesent collection, 1989.

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