North Carolina Museum of Art

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HIGHLIGHTS

20th-Century Collection

1910–1950

Marsden Hartley
(American, 1877–1943)

Indian Fantasy, 1914
Oil on canvas, 46 11/16 x 39 5/16 in. (118.6 x 99.7 cm)
Purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina, 75.1.4

Life as an expatriate painter in Berlin prompted Marsden Hartley to reflect upon his native country and his own identity as an American. The artist was troubled by what he judged to be the soulless greed and violence of modern industrial society. For Hartley the cure for a corrupt civilization was to be found in the rapturous embrace of the primitive.

Indian Fantasy is just that, a romantic fantasy upon a Native American theme. The composition is an ascending arrangement of Pueblo and Plains Indian motifs and symbols, presided over by a totemic eagle with wings outstretched against a rising (or setting) sun. The strict symmetry and the use of bold, flat patterns heighten the mystical character of the image. Here Hartley conjures a redemptive vision of earthly and spiritual harmony.