Maynard Dixon, 'Lesaka Waken,' 1922, oil on canvas, 56 5/16 x 46 3/16 x 1 7/8 inches. The Elias Jackson Baldwin Memorial Collection, Southwest Museum of the American Indian Collection, Autry Museum, Los Angeles. Gift of Mrs. Anita Baldwin. Frame courtesy of Shawn and Yvonne Speck.
While the monumentality of Lesaka Waken feels impossibly vast, anchored to both land and the highest of stratospheres, it also connects to the optics of relatively small. Is it intentional on Dixon’s part to invoke the transformative cycle of the Monarch Butterfly chrysalis, wherein the earthbound caterpillar transforms to achieve flight and migration?
