Cigar Store Indian 1935 - 1942

Walter Hochstrasser made this ‘Cigar Store Indian’ sometime between 1855 and 1995, with what looks like watercolor and gouache on paper. The way Hochstrasser has handled the paint is just great, you can really feel him figuring it out as he goes. It feels intuitive, you know? It reminds me of some of my own painting processes. Look at the way the colors are layered to give the figure form. The pigment is mostly opaque but it thins in places where he wants to show the light. The folds of the skirt look almost like thick impasto even though it's on paper. It’s so cool how the brown of the body is built up with all these different colors. And the feathers! They're so playful, like the painting is having a secret laugh. It makes me think of Joseph Stella, another artist who was fascinated by this subject matter. But Stella was looking towards the future, and Hochstrasser is capturing something older, like a memory. These paintings both remind us that art is all about talking to each other across time.