Half Indian/Half Mexican
- Half Indian/Half Mexican
Frame (.A): 62 1/4 × 50 3/8 × 2 1/2 in. (158.1 × 128 × 6.4 cm)
Frame (.B): 62 1/4 × 50 3/8 × 2 1/2 in. (158.1 × 128 × 6.4 cm)
Frame (.C): 62 1/4 × 50 3/8 × 2 1/2 in. (158.1 × 128 × 6.4 cm)
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James Luna wielded photography like a performance, producing works that force the viewer to confront his body and presence in the gallery. In Half Indian/Half Mexican, Luna styled halves of his head differently, appearing stereotypically Mexican on one side and Native American on the other, each a reference to his heritage. The tongue-in-cheek work playfully twists staid notions of identity. Luna noted, “I’m half many things. I’m half happy/I’m half angry. I’m half educated/I’m half ignorant. I’m half giving/I’m half selfish: A self is made up of many things. I do not have to be anything for anybody but myself.”
ProvenanceThe artist, d. 2018; Estate of the artist, 2018; [Garth Greenan Gallery, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2025.
Published References Archuleta, Elizabeth. "Refiguring Indian blood through poetry, photography, and performance art." Studies in American Indian Literatures 17, no. 4 (2005): 1-26. Armand, Claudine. "California Forgets. Luna Remembers: Sensing contemporary Native American realities in James Luna’s performance Native Stories: For Fun, Profit & Guilt." Neohelicon 44, no. 1 (2017): 115-129. Chizmar, Cleary. "Representation Through Photography." (2019). Runtić, Sanja. "Postindian Warrior is in the House: Voicing Survivance in Contemporary Native American Art." (2012): 251-269. Strong, Pauline Turner, and Barrik Van Winkle. "" Indian blood": Reflections on the reckoning and refiguring of native North American identity." Cultural anthropology 11, no. 4 (1996): 547-576. Van Dyke, John C. "Desert Days." Journal of the Southwest (1987): 418-432. Vargas, Kathy, and Robert C. Buitrón. "Topographies of the Imaginary." Born of Resistance: Cara a Cara Encounters with Chicana/o Visual Culture (2015): 218. Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Printed on applied label, frame verso, .B: Garth Greenan Gallery [address] // // James Luna // Half Indian/Half Mexican, 1991 // Silver gelatin print // 60 x 144 inches // 152.4 x 365.8 cm // AP 2, Artist’s Proof 2/2 // Signed and dated // (Inv# LUNPP002.AP.AP2) Center panel // Estate of James Luna
Printed on applied label, frame verso, .C: Garth Greenan Gallery [address] // // James Luna // Half Indian/Half Mexican, 1991 // Silver gelatin print // 60 x 144 inches // 152.4 x 365.8 cm // AP 2, Artist’s Proof 2/2 // Signed and dated // (Inv# LUNPP002.AP.AP2) Right panel // Estate of James Luna
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