Juane "Quick-To-See" Smith -
A Map to Heaven
American, b.1940
A Map to Heaven, 2002
Lithograph with chine colle, 39 x 34.5 inches
Edition 6/20
Tamarind Institute
02.019
Gift of Kathleeen J. Crispell (LSA '67) and Thomas S. Porter (MBA '67)
Jaune Quick-To-See Smith was born on the Flathead Reservation in Montana. Smith, represented in major international museum collections, has been very important for exploring and visualizing the complexities of Native American identity.
Although living in Corrales, New Mexico, her lithograph A Map to Heaven honors the rituals of her native Flathead and Blackfeet community. The map takes the form of a ceremonial costume, spread out for detail and also to suggest the outstretched arms of the human being who will inhabit it. Like a floating ghostly figure in a gesture of blessing, it offers us in its design a path to the world beyond.
