Indian Madonna Enthroned, 1974 (All Photos By Gail)

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a pioneering Native American artist and activist, passed away on January 24, 2025, after a prolonged battle with pancreatic cancer. She had just celebrated her 85th birthday.

An enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Smith was renowned for her dynamic artworks that intricately mapped the Native American experience, blending abstraction, collage, and mixed media to address themes of identity, oppression, and environmental issues.

McFlag, 1996


Cheyenne Series #53, 1984

Born on January 15, 1940, in St. Ignatius Mission, Montana, Smith’s early life was marked by movement across the Pacific Northwest and California, experiences that deeply influenced her artistic perspective. She pursued art education at institutions including Olympic College, Framingham State College, and the University of New Mexico, where she earned her Master’s in Art in 1980.

Petroglyph Park Series, 1987

Over her five-decade-long career, Smith’s work was featured in over 50 solo exhibitions and is held in the permanent collections of prominent institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2020, her painting I See Red: Target (1992) became the first painting on canvas by a Native American artist acquired by the National Gallery of Art.

Rain (C.S. 1854), 1990 (Detail)

In 2023, the Whitney Museum presented the exhibit Memory Map, a major retrospective of Smith’s work, highlighting her contributions to contemporary art and her role in amplifying Indigenous perspectives. The photos in this article were taken at that exhibit.

Trade Canoe for Don Quixote, 2004

Smith’s legacy as an artist, educator, and advocate for Native American voices endures, leaving an indelible mark on the art world and beyond.

The Rancher, 2002