Remembrance of the Tusayan

Description

Remembrance of the Tusayan

Maynard Dixon, 1924

For centuries the Hopi have inhabited the ancient Tusayan Province in northeastern Arizona. Dixon’s painting, however, portrays a pristine western landscape with no inhabitants.

The only human presence alluded to in this painting is that of the artist. Dixon organized the western desert landscape, with its mesas, buttes, and clouds, into a painted composition of his own imagination. He creates an abstract representation with his characteristic simplified clouds and landscape formations. Dixon’s signature at the bottom left of the painting underscores his presence at this scene.

Remembrance of the Tusayan was displayed in the American Dreams exhibition.

What’s Going On?

The image is a horizontal painting of a landscape.  The foreground is flat barren desert with clay-colored soil. The mid-ground is a line of plateaus with two larger plateaus behind, all are colored in oranges, yellows, and blue-greens.  The top half of the canvas is primarily blue sky and large white clouds.

More About Dixon

Maynard Dixon was an important 20^th-century American painter. He often depicted images of the American West.

Originally from California, Dixon painted subjects in both Arizona and New Mexico. He eventually settled in Southern Utah. There he developed his signature style of unique compositions. These often featured low horizons and simplified, yet imposing clouds and rock formations in bold colors.

Dixon also focused on preserving the image of Native American peoples whom he believed were disappearing from the American West. While married to the famous photographer Dorothea Lange, Dixon also focused on social realist subjects. These depicted people struggling to make a living during the Great Depression.