Remembrance of the Tusayan

Description

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.