Corn Maiden #29

Inscriptions

Inscribed, in paint, on reverse, upper center: #Cornmaiden #Khapo #tewa #okuupin; inscribed, in paint, on reverse, middle center: Corn Maiden / #29; signed and inscribed, in paint, on reverse, lower center: OKuu PIN’ / TURTLE MOUNTAIN / N38

Label

These works represent Native women seen through different lenses and in divergent styles. Cast in bronze (from an original in Indiana limestone), the figure in Allan Houser’s Taza stands upright, wearing an elegant shawl and bearing a contemplative gaze. One of the most prominent Native artists of the twentieth century, Houser is well known for his sculptures, which often include depictions of Native women. The effigy jar, made by a Tohono O’odham maker, merges a female figure with an ear of corn. The combination of womanhood and corn here conveys the importance of both subjects as symbols of survival and social organization. Similar in theme, Jason Garcia’s ceramic tile Corn Maiden #29 is a part of a larger series that depicts young women dressed for the Pueblo corn dance while also highlighting their contemporary lives. Here, a dancer leans against an adobe wall with a television antenna in the background.

From the 2022 exhibition Unbroken: Native American Ceramics, Sculpture, and Design, curated by Dillen Peace '19, Native American Art Intern and Sháńdíín Brown '20, Native American Art Intern 

Course History

ANTH 11, NAS 11, Ancient Native Americans, Nathaniel Kitchel, Fall 2019

ARTH 5, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2020

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

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Sienna Craig, Winter 2022

Writing Program 5.24, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Winter 2023

Writing Program 5.25, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Winter 2023

Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Spring 2023

English 62.05, Horrors of Survival: Modern American Literature, Jamie Godley, Summer 2023

Exhibition History

Unbroken: Native American Ceramics, Sculpture, and Design, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 22, 2022-March 12, 2023.

Provenance

King Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico; sold to present collection, 2019.

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Subjects