Artwork copyright Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Wisdom, 1996

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
American Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation Bitterroot Salish (Flathead) (born 1940, died 2025)

Location: University of Washington, Seattle

About the Artwork

Created by artist Jaune Quick-To-See Smith at the Lawrence Lithography Workshop in Kansas, Wisdom is part of a series of graphic prints that explore different concepts in Native American culture. The artist notes, "In Indian country, a person is not considered wise just by going to college. We see elders, sometimes illiterate, as being extraordinarily wise because they combine their life experience with cultural study and teaching plus much practiced analytical skills. We also believe that intelligence involves the heart with the head... we need their words to survive as Tribes."

This series is part of the Contemporary Native American Artwork Collection, on view at the University of Washington Gallagher Law Library. The collection was proposed by artist John Feodorov, who selected the eight represented artists for their rich and forward-thinking cultural expression. Speaking to the contemporary nature of this collection, Feodorov notes “since art, like law, is an ever evolving process, it cannot rely on nostalgia if it is to remain relevant.”

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with University of Washington.

About the Artist

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith grew up on the Flathead Nation in Montana in a home where art and horses were equally important. She traveled around the Pacific Northwest and California with her father, who was a horse trader. She graduated from Puyallup High School in Western Washington and earned an Associate of Arts degree at Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington in 1960. She studied at the University of Washington before earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art Education from Framingham State College in Massachusetts in 1976. She had to take many breaks from college to earn money but in 1980, she earned a Master of Arts degree in Art from the University of New Mexico. Quick-to-See Smith’s artworks are represented in many museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C. and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City. She was the first Native American artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City.