Indians c. 1940

Raymond Neumann created this work, entitled 'Indians,' sometime between 1855 and 1995 using an unknown medium. Looking at this print, we have to ask ourselves: What is the public role of this image? What are the politics of depicting Native Americans in this way? It’s difficult to know what Neumann intended by titling the piece 'Indians,' but the name and the caricatured style of the figures do raise questions. The artist seems to be drawing on a visual language of racial caricature that dates back to the 19th century when Indigenous peoples in the United States were routinely misrepresented through art. A deeper understanding of the context in which this piece was made would help us understand its role. We might look at the institutional history of ethnographic museums, or archives of popular imagery. By consulting resources like these, we can reflect on how this artwork engages with larger narratives and power dynamics of its time.