Cigar Store Indian 1935 - 1942

Walter Hochstrasser created this painted image of a Cigar Store Indian, but we don't know exactly when. The artist has rendered a three-dimensional object in two dimensions, which is kind of perverse, don't you think? The Indian figure is so rigid, so upright, so perfectly balanced on its wooden base, it's like Hochstrasser set himself a challenge. He’s applied these earth tones in such a way that it has a sculptural weight, but look closer, and you'll notice the feathered headdress, the draped sash, the beaded necklace, the little flowers in the hand, and the cigar in the other. What a strange and beautiful combination of control and release. I can imagine the artist, studying the object, trying to capture its essence with a range of brown shades—umber, ochre, and sienna—as well as red, black, green, and yellow. The shadows are dark and the highlights glow. It reminds me of the way Fairfield Porter made paintings of everyday life, in a similar way, this image is both familiar and weirdly detached. And both artists, in their own way, invite us to look more closely at the things we often take for granted.