Lloyd Moylan

Navajo Mother-in-Law

About late 1930s/early 1940s

Watercolor on paper

22” W x 28” H

About this artwork

One way to view Navajo Mother-in-Law is as a two-dimensional anthropological diorama. It is Lloyd Moylan’s attempt to depict an archaic Diné (Navajo) custom of mothers-in-law avoiding contact with their sons-in-law. With this painting, Moylan puts culture on display in an exoticizing fashion, as is the case with so many early 20th-century Western American artworks. Here, the subject is quite literally “staged” by means of its theatrically framed composition.

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More artworks by this artist

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Untitled (Allegory–History of the Region)

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Navajo Mother-in-Law

About this artwork

Audio description

More artworks by this artist

Untitled (Wagon & Campfire)

Storage Barn

Squaw Dance

Slim Woman and Chewing Tobacco Begay

Rural Rococo

Untitled (Rooster Pull)

The Rio Grande Country

Rain on the Reservation

Untitled (Pueblo Indians)

Prelude to Dust

Navajo

Journey Through Longhouse Valley

Household Duties

Untitled (Dinnertime)

Dance at San Felipe

Untitled (The Breadwinner)

Approaching Storm

Appointment in Gallup

Untitled (Allegory–History of the Region)

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Navajo Mother-in-Law

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