A celebrated watercolorist, Marin summered in New Mexico in 1929 and 1930. Like many artists and tourists who preceded him, the painter was particularly interested to see the legendary corn dance at the Santa Domingo village near the Rio Grande. Writing to his friend and patron Alfred Stieglitz about the performance, Marin exclaimed, "A big Indian dance I attended—my greatest human Experience." The painter translated his excitement into this vibrant watercolor, in which rhythmic abstract pattern evokes vigorous and communal cultural expression. Seen from a distance, the dancers appear integrated with their environment.
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right, in graphite and watercolor, overlapping): Marin 29
the artist (1929–49; his gift in exchange for "evolutionary" material [33 framed Marin paintings] to MMA)
New York. An American Place. "John Marin: Recent Water-colors, New Mexico and New York," November 1930, no catalogue (listed in checklist as "Indian Dance, San Domingo").
New York. An American Place. "Twenty-five Years of John Marin, 1908–1932: John Marin, 33 Watercolors," October 16–November 27, 1933, no catalogue (checklist no. 25, as "Corn Dance").
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "John Marin: Watercolors, Oil Paintings, Etchings," October 19–November 22, 1936, no. 126.
Washington, D. C. Phillips Memorial Gallery. "Picasso and Marin: An Exhibition," April 10–May 1, 1938, no. 16.
Boston. Institute of Modern Art. "John Marin: A Retrospective Exhibition," January 7–February 15, 1947, no. 41.
Washington, D. C. Phillips Memorial Gallery. "John Marin: A Retrospective Exhibition," March 2–April 15, 1947, no. 41.
Minneapolis. Walker Art Center. "John Marin: A Retrospective Exhibition," May 1–June 15, 1947, no. 41.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "John Marin Memorial Exhibition," March 1–April 17, 1955, no. 47 (dwg) (as "Corn Dance, New Mexico").
Washington, D. C. Phillips Gallery. "John Marin Memorial Exhibition," May 15–June 30, 1955, no. 47 (dwg).
San Francisco Museum of Art. "John Marin Memorial Exhibition," July 19–September 11, 1955, no. 47 (dwg).
University of California, Los Angeles. "John Marin Memorial Exhibition," September 28–November 9, 1955, no. 47 (dwg).
Cleveland Museum of Art. "John Marin Memorial Exhibition," November 17, 1955–January 1, 1956, no. 47 (dwg).
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "John Marin Memorial Exhibition," February 3–March 20, 1956, no. 47 (dwg).
Palm Beach. Society of the Four Arts. "John Marin Memorial Exhibition," March 9–20, 1956 (part 1, drawings, etchings and watercolors); March 23–April 1, 1956 (part 2, oils), no. 47 (dwg).
University of Georgia, Athens. "John Marin Memorial Exhibition," May 1956, no. 47 (dwg).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "John Marin Memorial Exhibition," June 13–July 29, 1956, no. 47 (dwg).
London. Arts Council Gallery. "John Marin: Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings, and Etchings: An Exhibition," September 22–October 20, 1956, no. 71 (as "Corn Dance, New Mexico").
Albuquerque. University of New Mexico Art Museum. "Marin in New Mexico: 1929 & 1930," November 18–December 29, 1968, unnumbered cat. (fig. 8).
San Antonio. Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute. "Marin in New Mexico: 1929 & 1930," February 7–March 7, 1969, unnumbered cat.
Fort Worth. Amon Carter Museum. "Marin in New Mexico: 1929 & 1930," March 21–May 12, 1969, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings and Watercolors by John Marin," February 3–March 29, 1981, no catalogue.
Stamford, Conn. Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion. "Modernists in (New) Mexico," September 27–December 27, 1996, unnumbered cat. (p. 7).
Davenport, Iowa. Figge Art Museum. "The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity, 1915–1935," September 17, 2005–January 1, 2006, not in catalogue.
Tacoma, Wash. Tacoma Art Museum. "The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity, 1915–1935," February 4–May 21, 2006, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe," October 13, 2011–January 2, 2012, no. 159.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "John Marin Watercolors," March 26–August 26, 2012, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Artistic Encounters with Indigenous America," December 3, 2018–May 13, 2019.
Ralph Flint. "Marin Exhibits New Landscapes Done in Taos." Art News 29 (November 8, 1930), pp. 1, 5.
Waldo Frank, Lewis Mumford, Dorothy Norman, Paul Rosenfeld, and Harold Rugg, ed. America and Alfred Stieglitz: A Collective Portrait. Garden City, N. Y., 1934, pl. XIXA.
E[manuel]. M. Benson. John Marin: The Man and His Work. Washington, D.C., 1935, pl. 42, calls it "Corn Dance, New Mexico".
Emanuel M. Benson. "John Marin: The Man and His Work; part 2, Marin, the work." American Magazine of Art 28 (November 1935), p. 663, ill., as "Corn Dance, New Mexico".
Martha Davidson. "Marin: Master of a Minor Medium." Art News 35 (October 24, 1936), p. 12.
MacKinley Helm. John Marin. Boston, 1948, pp. 65, 183, pl. 31.
John Marin. Selected Writings. Ed. Dorothy Norman. New York, 1949, ill. facing p. 178.
Van Deren Coke. Taos and Santa Fe: The Artist's Environment, 1882–1942. [Albuquerque], 1963, pp. 87, 117, no. 48, ill.
Sheldon Reich. John Marin: A Stylistic Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné. Tucson, 1970, vol. 1, p. 187, fig. 159, vol. 2, p. 605, fig. 29.10.
John Marin. John Marin by John Marin. Ed. Cleve Gray. New York, 1970, p. 59, ill.
Sheldon Reich. "John Marin and the Piercing Light of Taos." Art News 73 (January 1974), p. 17.
William H. Truettner inArt in New Mexico, 1900–1945: Paths to Taos and Santa Fe. Exh. cat., National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. New York, 1986, pp. 93, 95, fig. 103.
Mr. William Truettner inArt in New Mexico, 1900–1945: Path to Taos and Santa Fe. Exh. cat., National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. New York, 1986, pp. 93, 235, fig. 103 (color).
Donna M. Cassidy. "John Marin's Dancing Nudes by the Seashore: Images of the New Eve." Smithsonian Studies in American Art 14, no. 1 (winter 1990), p. 74, fig. 4.
Ruth E. Fine. John Marin. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1990, pp. 223–24, fig. 217.
W. Jackson Rushing. Native American Art and the New York Avant–Garde: A History of Cultural Primitivism. Austin, 1995, pp. 76–77, 79, ill.
Celeste Connor. Democratic Visions: Art and Theory of the Stieglitz Circle, 1924–1934. Berkeley, 2001, pp. xi, 181–82, 229, no. 6, pl. 6.
Katja Fauth. Modernist Visions in Taos: Mabel Dodge Luhan and the Artists of the Stieglitz Circle. Marburg, Germany, 2009, pp. 211–12, 230, fig. 48.
Jessica Murphy inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 183, 274, no. 159, ill. (color).
John Marin (American, Rutherford, New Jersey 1870–1953 Cape Split, Maine)
1913
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