Adios Map

2021

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

Associated Names
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Artist, Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, 1940-2025
A map of the United States has black outlines for the states and is loosely painted, mostly in lemon yellow, but there are also streaks in indigo blue, turquoise, crimson, brick red, pink, pine green, and marigold orange. Some streaks drip down the canvas within the map and onto the azure-blue background surrounding the map. Snippets of black text against a white background, like newspaper or magazine clippings, are arranged to create a loose band from the upper left corner, in Washington state, to the lower right, in Florida. They read, "No mas.", "Finito.", "Ciao", "Au revoir.", "This is it.", "All gone.", "Adieu.", "Hasta la vista.", "Sayonara.", "Dasvidaniya.", "Kaput baby.", "Shalom.", "Toodeloo.", "Keep it real.", "Hit the road.", "Ta ta.", "Bye-bye.", "Das Ende.", "No more.", "Going going gone.", "Auf Wiedersehen.", "All the best.", "Adios.", "Take it easy.", "Peace.", "Cheerio.", "Later alligator.", "Hang loose.", "The end.", "Last one.", "See ya'.", "Cheers.", "That's it.", and "Finis."
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Different ways to say “goodbye” cascade diagonally, from the Pacific Northwest to the Florida peninsula, across a map of the United States. Native American artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith began painting her own versions of US maps in 1996. By adding text, as she does here, Smith offers alternative stories that a map can tell. When Smith made Adios Map, she thought of 2021 as a year of goodbyes—to lives lost in the pandemic, to land destroyed by climate disasters, and more.

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Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

Shown from the shins up, two elegantly dressed women and two young boys, all with light skin, sit together on a bench in front of a stone balustrade with a forest landscape beyond in this horizontal portrait painting. The people are brightly lit from our left but the darkened sky suggests dusk. The boys lean onto the woman at the center of the composition, and the second woman sits to her right, our left. All of the people have pale skin, rosy cheeks, delicate noses, and their pink lips all turn up in slight smiles. The woman on our left sits with her body angled toward her friend but she turns her face to look at us with brown eyes under curving brows. Her wavy, flint-gray hair is loosely bound up so it frames the sides of her face and curls over her shoulders. Her swirling, white head covering is edged in gold and tied in a bow over her left ear, on our right. Her long-sleeved dress has a tight-fitting bodice and a low, scooped neckline lined with pleated white fabric. Her dress shimmers from sapphire blue to dusky pink, suggesting it is iridescent taffeta. Large pearls hang off the end of round, gold, hoop earrings, and a glimmering gold sash is tied around her waist. She sits with her left hand resting on her friend’s right shoulder, closer to her, and she gestures toward one of the young boys leaning on the friend’s lap with her other hand. The second woman sits with her body facing us, and she looks off to our left with gray-blue eyes. Her silvery gray, upswept hair is covered with a long piece of white fabric with pink stripes, twisted loosely into a turban-like head covering. She wears dangling gold earrings, and her dress is striped with parchment white and rust red. Her right hand, on our left, rests on her friend’s knee, and her other arm is wrapped around the older boy. He kneels on the bench and leans forward, wrapping the arm we can see around her torso. His face near hers, he looks up at her from under his lashes. A dimple marks the flushed cheek we can see. His chestnut-brown hair falls around his shoulders, and he wears a gingerbread-brown suit. The smaller and younger of the two boys rests his head on his crossed hands on her thigh, and looks out at us. He wears a white garment with a lilac-purple sash tied in a bow around his waist. There is a pale pink rosebush in the lower right corner of the painting, near the kneeling boy’s foot. The landscape beyond the balustrade is filled with dark green trees against a slate-blue sky. The painting is created with blended brushstrokes, giving it a soft look.

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist; purchased January 2022 through (Garth Greenan Gallery, New York) by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

-1

  • Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Woman in Landscape, Garthe Greenan Gallery, New York, 2021.

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