Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, trailblazing Native Artist, dies at 85

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a Native American artist whose work redefined the landscape of contemporary American art, died after a battle with pancreatic cancer on Jan. 24 at her home in Corrales. She was 85.

Quick-to-See Smith’s art has been featured in museums across America and the works often took to task historical injustices, particularly against Native Americans, using wit and splashes of color to get the point across. During her career, Quick-to-See Smith also mentored many Native artists and is credited for widening the exposure of Native American art where it didn’t exist before.

“The best context in which to see her work is as a citizen of the world making a case to tell major stories that most of us don’t take the time to understand or appreciate,” Andrew Connors, director of the Albuquerque Museum where Quick-to-See Smith’s art has been permanently featured, told the Journal.

A citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Quick-to-See Smith was born Jan. 15, 1940, at the St. Ignatius Indian Mission on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, according to her Britannica biography. Because of her father’s job as a horsetrader and rodeo participant, she spent her childhood moving across the Pacific Northwest and California. Quick-to-See Smith’s formal art education began at Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington, where she earned an associate degree in 1960. She later obtained a bachelor’s degree in art education from Framingham State College in Massachusetts in 1976, and a master’s in art from the University of New Mexico in 1980.

In the 1970s, Quick-to-See Smith began showing her paintings in regional galleries and university art spaces, steadily gaining recognition for her powerful visual language, according to a 2023 profile published in the New York Times. By the early 1980s, she was exhibiting nationally, catching the attention of major institutions and curators.

One such institution was the Albuquerque Museum, which acquired one of her paintings in 1986, according to Connors. That work became a cornerstone of the museum’s collection, serving as a visual and conceptual focal point for exhibitions exploring contemporary Indigenous art. The painting was featured on the cover of the museum’s 2000 book on its permanent collection.

“Her work has been included in every installation of the museum’s permanent collection,” said Connors. “All students immediately relate to her subtle, sophisticated, but recognizable iconography, and adults appreciate the humor and sophisticated social commentary in her work.”

In the years that followed, her work appeared in increasingly prestigious venues, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Museum of Modern Art, according to the museums’ online archives. Her paintings and mixed-media works — infused with biting humor, political critique and an acute awareness of historical injustice — challenged the exclusionary norms of the art industry. Soon enough, she had firmly established herself as one of the most important Native artists of her time.

In 2020, Quick-to-See Smith became the first Native American artist to have a painting acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., with her work entitled “Target,” according to the Times article. Quick-to-See Smith often said — and in this moment proved — that she had “smashed the buckskin ceiling,” opening doors that had been firmly closed to Native artists.

Her work was as urgent as it was visually striking. Often blending collage, abstraction and satire, she tackled themes of colonialism, environmental destruction, and the erasure of Indigenous history, according to the Smithsonian. Pieces like “I See Red: Target and Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People)” remain some of the most important critiques of American consumerism and historical amnesia, according to a piece written at the Whitney Museum by curator Laura Phipps.

At the Whitney Museum in 2023, she was honored with the “Memory Maps,” the largest retrospective of her career and the museum’s first dedicated to an Indigenous artist, according to Phipps. The exhibition, which featured nearly five decades of her work, was a moment that cemented her place not just in Native American art, but in the general story of American art history as well.

“It felt important that the Whitney, as a museum of American art, present Jaune’s work in the full context of the history of American art, American modernism,” said Phipps, “Jaune’s work has taught us so much, not the least that there is a much deeper understanding of the history of this country and land that needs to happen for us to really build new futures.”

According to the Polk Museum of Art, her work has spanned over 70 solo exhibitions. With this long career and list of accomplishments, “She kicked open a door that had slowly, slowly been opening for Indigenous artists for decades, and when she opened the door, she brought everyone with her,” Phipps said.

“If she was one to smash through that ceiling, she was deeply committed to bringing other artists with her on that trajectory,” Connors said.

It was this commitment that motivated Quick-to-See Smith to mentor many artists over the span of her career, including Emmi Whitehorse, who recalled how she approached teaching with a sense of humor. “She used humor a lot,” she said. “If you didn’t impress the teacher and got low marks for it, she would say something funny that would help erase the ouch.”

Whitehorse also remembers her as patient, and someone who always encouraged younger artists to stand firm in their identities. “She told us to carry our ‘Indian-ness’ up front and never be ashamed of it,” Whitehorse said. “She made sure we knew that our work was just as good as anybody else’s out in the art world.”

Quick-to-See Smith also taught her mentees that success was never an individual achievement — it was collective. With every “buckskin ceiling” that she shattered, she brought her community with her, ensuring that Native art was recognized not as a niche interest but as a vital, undeniable part of American art history.

That impact is evident today, Whitehorse said, in the visibility of Indigenous artists across the country. “We are enjoying the rewards already,” she said. “Art done by Native artists isn’t a foreign or alien concept anymore. We are seeing Native artists showing everywhere.”

“She shone a light on Native artists,” said Whitehorse. “She educated the world, the art world, that had blinders on.”

According to the Garth Greenan Gallery, Quick-to-See Smith is survived by her children Neal Ambrose-Smith, William Ambrose, and Roxanne Ambrose, her husband Andy Ambrose and seven grandchildren.