Cigar Store Indian c. 1936

Walter Hochstrasser made this watercolor and graphite drawing of a Cigar Store Indian. You can see the artist building up the colors layer by layer, how the form emerges through the process. There’s something quite tender in the way he’s rendered the figure’s form and textures, like the wood grain in the base, or the feathered skirt. I love the greens, yellows, and browns in the headdress. If you look closely, you can see the faint pencil lines underneath. It’s as if Hochstrasser is gently coaxing this figure into being. He's letting us see the process of how he came to know the figure. This piece makes me think of Joseph Stella. Both artists were fascinated with American subjects. Both artists allow for a looser and more gestural approach to representation. There is an openness in this image. It's about the act of seeing, and how art can be a way of looking closer at the world.