Black Hawk and the Prophet - Saukie 1861 - 1869

This work was made by George Catlin, who lived in the 1800s, using paint on paper. Catlin dedicated much of his career to documenting the appearance and customs of Native American people. The application of watercolor is quite thin and even, allowing for a good amount of light to reflect off the surface of the paper. The visual effect is one of immediacy. We get a clear sense of Catlin’s own presence as a witness to the scene. The method is interesting, because Catlin was able to produce a huge number of these works. It's an open question whether this was a basically an industrial process, like a printing operation, or an artistic one. Catlin's paintings remain invaluable as a resource for understanding the cultures he encountered. Whether one sees him as an artist, an ethnographer, or both, his works prompt us to reconsider how visual media mediates our understanding of diverse cultures and their material practices.