Collection Artwork
A young, tanned, Native woman sits in a fake snowy landscape wearing a bright red and blue dress with her hair in two braids.
A young, tanned, Native woman sits in a fake snowy landscape wearing a bright red and blue dress with her hair in two braids.
A young, tanned, Native woman sits in a fake snowy landscape wearing a bright red and blue dress with her hair in two braids.
A young, tanned, Native woman sits in a fake snowy landscape wearing a bright red and blue dress with her hair in two braids.
Wendy Red Star (born Billings, Montana, 1981)
Winter [from Four Seasons]
2006
archival pigment print on Sunset Fiber rag
Pushdot Studios (Portland, Oregon, established 2002)
paper size: 23 x 26 in.
image size: 21 x 24 in.
Purchased with generous funding from Ann Schapps Schaffer ’62 and Melvyn S. Schaffer
Los Angeles, California, United States, North America
2017.27.2
21/28 with 4 APs
Inscribed, dated, and signed in ink, verso, lower right: Four Seasons Series / Winter, 2006 / Edition # 21 of 28, 4AP / [artist signature]

Installation views

Object Label

Colorful and satirical, Wendy Red Star’s Four Seasons challenges white American portrayals of Native people as exoticized, primitive, or “one with nature”—characterizations often seen in natural history museum dioramas.

The artist positions herself as the sole figure in each photograph, juxtaposing her authentic cultural identity against the intentionally artificial setting surrounding her. Red Star wears a brightly colored elk-tooth dress, representative of her Apsáalooke (Crow) heritage. Hunters can harvest only two eye-teeth from a single elk. The artist’s dress, with many teeth, highlights the hunting skills of brothers, husbands, and fathers, suggesting familial wealth and power.

From the exhibition: Give a damn. (June 30 – September 30, 2018)

Ongoing Research

Research on our collection is ongoing. If you have resources you’d like to share, please contact Associate Curator Rebecca McNamara.
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