Cigar Store Indian 1938

Editor: So, we're looking at "Cigar Store Indian," from 1938, artist is Henry Tomaszewski, rendered with colored pencil. It reminds me a lot of those folk-art sculptures; however, they're usually more expressive in their wood carvings and paint work, especially when you get up close. How should we consider this sculpture in relation to material conditions of its time? Curator: Excellent question! To really unpack this piece, let's consider the materials first. Notice the way the color pencil emphasizes the sculpture's form but also obscures its inherent texture of wood. What kind of relationship do you think the artist is suggesting between the art object and its cultural commodity? Editor: The Indigenous figure becomes a vessel, almost unrecognisable without its assigned and prescribed function? It highlights its production as part of the commodification process rather than artistic endeavor alone? Curator: Precisely! It’s forcing us to see this not just as a static artwork but as a product of very specific labor and a part of capitalist machine during 1930s America. Editor: Does the date suggest something about its role as cultural propaganda or resistance? Curator: Perhaps both! The act of depicting a wooden object in colored pencil subtly elevates what was mass produced, whilst also diminishing its authenticity in real life, suggesting an illusion created from Indigenous identity by non-Indigenous people for profit, and the original artwork allows viewers to contemplate all its implications even now. Editor: Wow. I'll never look at a drawing the same way again. Curator: Nor should you!