Indian Detour
Indian Detour
Artist
John Sloan
(1871 - 1951)
Date1927
MediumEtching
Dimensionsplate: 6 × 7 1/4 in. (15.2 × 18.4 cm)
ClassificationsPrint
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2013.25
Signedl.r., in plate: John Sloan, '27
l.r., in pencil: John Sloan
Accession number
2013.25
On View
On viewLabel TextJohn Sloan’s print references bus tours organized by the Fred Harvey Company in 1926 that transported tourists from the hotels along the Santa Fe Railway to remote Indian reservations. A growing number of Americans wanted to experience authentic Native American culture, as it was considered to be vanishing. On these “detours,” it was customary for the Pueblos to perform a portion of a ceremonial dance for the tourists. Sloan, who had established a summer home in Santa Fe in 1920, found these bus tours such gawking intrusions into sacred Native American rituals that he lampooned them in this etching.
Inscribedrecto, l.l., in pencil: 100 proofs
recto, l.c., in pencil: Indian Detour
recto, l.r., in pencil: M 231