Museum admission is free
galleries open today until 6PM
Hammer Channel

Watch 1,000+ talks, performances, artist profiles, and more.

Go to Hammer Channel
Collections
Collage of five diverse artworks from the Hammer Museum Collections side by side. From left to right: 1) Contemporary painting of two embracing figures with surreal elements. 2) Post-impressionist style painting of trees with vibrant blues and greens. 3) Black and white illustration of a face with intricate patterns. 4) Japanese woodblock print style image of a figure in a checkered robe. 5) Photograph of a couple dancing, the woman in a black dress and the man in white

See 50,000+ objects, including prints, photographs, paintings, and more.

Go to Hammer Collections

The Hammer Museum and Lulu restaurant will be closed to the public on Tuesday, December 24 and Wednesday, December 25.

Digital Archive Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology
Art Jimmie Durham, Coyote/Trickster
Coyote/Trickster, by Jimmie Durham, 1991

Jimmie Durham, Artist
Coyote/Trickster , 1991

Medium
Wood, wooden fish head, wooden fish tail, papier-mâché, black-and-white photograph
Dimensions
64 1/4 x 30 3/4 x 28 5/16 in. (163.2 x 78.1 x 72 cm)
Credit Line
Collection of Karen and Andy Stillpass, Cincinnati. Image courtesy of Andy Stillpass

For Coyote/Trickster, Jimmie Durham employs animism, organic materials, and iconography. Representing a trickster figure in many cultures, the coyote is a recurring image for the artist, who has himself been called a trickster for the humor and wit he deploys in his work. While Durham's long-standing use of materials like stone, wood, animal skulls, and leather is in part a playful push against what is expected of him as a Native artist, he in fact has enormous respect for these objects' past lives. Much of his sculptural practice stems from his desire to give materials new purpose and to expand their associative meanings in new directions.