Minnehaha 1868

Curator: Here we have "Minnehaha," a marble sculpture completed in 1868 by Edmonia Lewis. The artwork resides here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: The whiteness is arresting, almost blinding. There's a coolness and quietude to the piece—a serene calm radiates from her expression. Curator: Indeed. Lewis’s choice of marble aligns her work with the Neoclassical movement, echoing historical and romantic depictions, and speaks to the historical complexities of representation, particularly for marginalized identities. The statue is of a fictional Native American woman. Editor: It is strange to see her—frozen. It's not something you might touch. The craftsmanship, though... each strand of hair is so precise, the draping, and then a necklace to complete the scene. So much work! Curator: The narrative underpinning is fascinating. "Minnehaha" is a character from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Song of Hiawatha," which, although popular, romanticized and arguably misrepresented Native American cultures. Lewis herself had Native American heritage, so her engagement with this subject matter adds a layer of interpretation about identity and representation. Editor: A difficult balance. She carves an idealized vision, but there is no raw edge. It looks away. Did this imagery play into harmful fantasies or offer any visibility at all? I can’t help but see the political struggle implicit here. Curator: Absolutely, her intersectional identity, being both African American and Native American, further complicates how we read her artistic choices within the nineteenth-century social and artistic landscape. And it encourages a necessary dialogue around themes of colonialism and identity construction. Editor: Thinking of her studio, working on stone—and within a society riddled with contradictions and blatant inequalities. I wonder what was on her mind... a whisper through the ages. Curator: Thinking about it has reframed Lewis' work for me, her engagement, in marble no less, opens pathways into critical discourse, as challenging and multifaceted as the sculpture itself. Editor: And me! This encounter is one I will not forget... that simple fact might be her quiet, stunning revolution, then and still now.