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.
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?
In 1939, Dixon and his wife built a home in Mt. Carmel, Utah. Here they admired the natural landscape of the area until his death in 1946. This quintessentially Utahn scene portrays Native Americans as part of the natural landscape.
As we anticipate the transition from the blistering of summer heat to the crispness of fall, let us celebrate a painting in which the sun itself retreats into the autumn leaves.