On April 2, 1991, James Luna stood in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the downtown branch at the Federal Reserve Plaza, dressed in Native American clothing. “Take a picture with a real Indian,” he shouted. Embarrassed yet amused, the audience gathered around, not quite knowing how to react. Luna, who died in 2018, described this performance piece as a mutual humiliation: by posing as a tourist attraction he was pointing up the simultaneous romanticizing and commodification of Native American culture, the way America turns his people into a tourist attraction. Almost 30 years later, this online exhibition displays photographs of that day. —E.C.
The Arts Intel Report
James Luna: Take a Picture with a Real Indian
When
May 21, 2020 – Aug 31, 2021
Where
Etc
James Luna, “Take a Picture with a Real Indian,” 1991. Courtesy of Garth Greenan Gallery, New York