Taos Winter Night
T. C. Cannon, Ka'igwu / Caddo / Choctaw / American, 1946 - 1978
Caddo
Ka'igwu (Kiowa)
Choctaw
Southern Plains
Plains
1977
Graphite and acrylic on paper
Image: 18 × 13 in. (45.7 × 33 cm)
Frame: 28 1/4 × 22 1/4 in. (71.8 × 56.5 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through a gift from the Class of 1971
2019.77
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Native American
Painting
Native American: Plains
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed and dated, lower right: Cannon '77
Label
Painted a year before T. C. Cannon’s early death at age 31, this work on paper depicts a winter scene at Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. A figure at the center is bundled in a blanket; in the background, a snow-covered mountain stands below a sky illuminated by golden, iridescent stars. This spherical repetition is reminiscent of the sunspots Cannon often included in the backgrounds of his paintings, mimicking what participants in a Sun Dance ceremony would see after staring into the sunlight to receive cleansing and renewal. The deep purple paired with the quiet of winter makes for a romantic scene reflective of Cannon’s poetic tendencies.
From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Course History
ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022
GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022
ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022
ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022
ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022
ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022
ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022
SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022
Exhibition History
This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5–July 22, 2022.
Provenance
T. Turner Pope, III, Houston, TX, 1994; to Zaplin Lampert Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 1994; sold to private collection, 2000; sold to private collection, Dallas, TX, 2016; sold to Zaplin Lampert Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2019; sold to present collection, 2019
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