Cigar Store Indian c. 1937

Albert Ryder made this painting of a Cigar Store Indian, we're not sure exactly when, using watercolor. I like how he uses layers of thin color washes to build up the image, like a slow, thoughtful process of accumulation. Up close, you can see the way the watercolors pool and settle, especially in the darker areas like the base of the sculpture where it reads ‘J.M. Anthony Cigars’. This gives the whole painting a kind of dreamy, melancholic feel. The colors are muted, earthy tones that seem to speak to a sense of history and memory. There's a softness to the way Ryder renders the figure that almost feels like a ghost or apparition, as if this image is fading from memory. The subject of the work brings to mind another artist, Red Grooms, who plays with similar Americana motifs in his sculptures and paintings. Both artists seem interested in how we construct and consume images of the past, and the strange ways these images linger in our collective consciousness.