Arrested Gestures: Embracing Mystery in Edmonia Lewis’s “Indian Combat”

Lunchtime Lecture

Tags For: Arrested Gestures: Embracing Mystery In Edmonia Lewis’s “indian Combat”
  • Lecture

Come to the CMA for a quick bite of art history. Every first Tuesday of each month, join curators, conservators, scholars, and other museum staff for 30-minute talks on objects currently on display in the museum galleries. 

Tuesday, October 7, 2025, 12:00–1:00 p.m.
Elizabeth Spear, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Art History Leadership
Location:  Gartner Auditorium
Suzanne and Paul Westlake Performing Arts Center
Free; Ticket Required

About The Event

Those acquainted with the CMA’s collection of American art may be familiar with Edmonia Lewis’s Indian Combat (1868), which the artist, who studied at Oberlin College, completed two years after moving to Rome. With its spiraling composition and gracefully interlocking figures, Indian Combat immediately calls to mind famous examples of Italian Mannerism and may also quote from sculptural precedents in Classical antiquity and the Baroque period. But what other stories did the artist embed in this artwork, and how did it find its way to Cleveland more than a century after her death? This talk examines what is known about Lewis and her work and probes some of the mysteries she left behind in this unique and captivating sculpture.

Sponsors

All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Principal support is provided by Dieter and Susan M. Kaesgen and Gail C. and Elliott L. Schlang. Major annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, Medical Mutual of Ohio, the Edwin D. Northrup II Fund, Shurtape Technologies, and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Generous annual support is provided by Gini and Randy Barbato, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, Linda Harper, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Susan LaPine, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, Sarah Nash, Courtney and Michael Novak, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, the Pickering Foundation, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Suzanne Cushwa Rusnak and Jeff Rusnak, Ellen and Lowell Satre, in memory of Dee Schafer, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Sally and Larry Sears Fund for Education Endowment, Roy Smith, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Trilling Family Foundation, Jack and Jeanette Walton, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

    The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

    Education programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.