Skip to main content

Buffalo Hunt

Collections Menu
Photography by Edward C. Robison III.
Buffalo Hunt
Photography by Edward C. Robison III.

Buffalo Hunt

Artist (Navajo, 1921 - 1956)
Date1940
MediumGouache on paper
Dimensions19 1/2 × 27 1/2 in. (49.5 × 69.9 cm)
ClassificationsWatercolor
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2020.54
Accession number 2020.54
On View
Not on view
ProvenancePrivate Collection, NY ; (Adobe Gallery, Santa Fe, NM); Bruce Hartman, Prairie Village, KS; purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2020
Label TextNavajo artist Quincy Tahoma looked to Native American styles, yet invented a modern, individual interpretation of past sources. He studied at the Santa Fe Indian School, where many native artists explored traditional subjects such as ceremonial dances, mythology, and animals including buffalo and horses. The artists' choices were largely driven by the demands of the art market, as non-Native audiences wanted and expected these themes in their work. In Buffalo Hunt, Tahoma pushed the bounds of this imagery with a scene of surprising violence and intensity, portraying the dramatic action of the hunt.