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Coyote and Snow

• Art by Harry Fonseca
• PhotoZone
• Dec 30, 2022

Artwork © 2016 Harry Fonseca Collection, Autry Museum of the American West, Courtesy Of the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians And Western Art, Indianapolis

THE LATE ARTIST HARRY FONSECA drew heavily from his Indigenous heritage as part of the Nisenan Maidu People in California to create paintings of the Native American hero Coyote, renowned as a trickster and creator. In this 1979 work, Coyote wears a traditional feathered cape as he walks through falling snow. “I find it playful, whimsical, even magical,” says Dorene Red Cloud, curator of Native American art at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, where Fonseca was a 2005 Contemporary Art Fellow. “This painting reminds me of the specialness of the season, when we loved winter as kids.” She hopes viewers will feel that same sense of wonder.

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