Paul Chaat Smith is an important man. He is well-versed in the history of the Native American image in media. He is a man of considerable art scholarship, especially in regards to painting. He is a man who was a part of the American Indian Movement of the 70’s, but has not had a documentary made celebrating his life during those times. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s because he doesn’t talk-sing corny poetry or pontificate like Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, Paul Chaat Smith is an important man.
However, when I first laid eyes on him sitting at the signing table in the great hall at New York’s NMAI, I had no idea who he was. I think he could tell I had no clue who he was and it irked him. He signed my exhibition catalogue perfunctorily and skidded it over the long table towards a smiling James Lavadour.

“Gee what an asshole,” I thought.

Alas I was not there to see him, or James Lavadour, for that matter, I was there to see what Erica Lord concocted for this exhibit. Call me a dilletante, but I hate painting-unless it’s got naked chicks, dudes, Spanish contessas circa 1960, bloody bulls, amorphous sea creatures and bunnies with razor sharp teeth-then I’m all about painting. I love video installation, performance, photography of all sorts, but mostly portraiture that is ironic in some way. I like slip-shoddy work that is blessed with well-honed theoretical blah-d-blah, which is why i like Erica’s work so much. Not that it’s slip-shoddy but it ain’t highfaluttin painting either. I also love writing. I love writers. And I love writers who write non-fiction, especially about cultural diasporas, identity politics, the institution that is race and the construction of culture out of colonization. As it turns out, that asshole who threw my catalogue at poor James Lavadour is the type of writer I love. Paul Chaat Smith’s essay included in my exhibition catalogue was not about the painters included in the show-a medium he has based his entire critical career upon-but about Erica Lord’s mucho post-moderno work. He even proclaims NAICA’s beloved Zacharias Kunuk Native America’s “top dog.”

Indeed!

I didn’t think I’d like someone as surly as Chaat Smith but damn if he ain’t a great writer. He has written all manner of great writing on a many varied topic, mostly related to Native American artists and their media representation. He’s the Indian cultural critic. And I had no idea when I, along with angsty critic Brooke Green, harassed him about painting on the 5 train going uptown. No idea. Paul Chaat Smith is an important man.
A very very important man.

(get yourself versed kids. Read Mr. Smith’s good words here-http://redplanet.home.mindspring.com/index.htm)