Cigar Store Indian c. 1937

Curator: So here we have "Cigar Store Indian," dating circa 1937. It's a drawing by Walter Hochstrasser. I must say, there’s a captivating blend of strength and melancholy in this portrait. What is your first impression? Editor: Immediately, I’m struck by this figure as an effigy, a totem. It’s more than a portrait; it feels like a stand-in for complex narratives about identity and representation, almost like the cultural memory made visible. Curator: Exactly! The way Hochstrasser renders her… it feels more like capturing an echo than an individual. I find myself wondering about his motivations, his perceptions of Indigenous people. Did he feel like he was celebrating her heritage, or exploiting a stereotype? Editor: The cigar store Indian itself became such a loaded symbol, a strange nexus of commercialism and cultural appropriation. Consider how often these figures stood sentinel outside tobacco shops, embodying both exoticism and subjugation. This image captures that conflict beautifully. Curator: There's a quiet sadness in her eyes too, which speaks to a collective sorrow, the loss of lands and traditions. Even the way the light falls seems to emphasize the weariness embedded in her posture. Editor: Precisely, the downcast gaze and muted palette only amplify this sense of resignation. Look at the gesture of her open palm. Is she offering something, or simply presenting herself for consumption, if you will? I can’t help but to read that open palm as a complex question about value, trade, and the gaze of the other. Curator: I wonder about the original statue it might be based on. Where it came from and what happened to it...This piece becomes a meditation not just on the figure but on its history, a portrait of a portrait, maybe. It leaves a rather profound ache, don't you think? Editor: Indeed. It challenges us to examine our own inherited assumptions. An artifact like this functions as a mirror, reflecting back at us the stories we tell ourselves.