The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 2025

Print with a white and black figure like two cloths shaped by pointy ears and nose, hinting at a coyote underneath. The cloths are covered with black ink splotches and ripple as they float in front of an ombré teal blue to pale pink background. White four-point stars hover in the upper left corner, and blue lines and circles swish down to the figure’s right. Below the floating cloths grey ink splotches are splattered.

Coyote in Quarantine

2020

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

(Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, 1940–2025)

Tamarind Institute

America

9 color lithograph

Image and Sheet: 67 x 50.5 cm (26 3/8 x 19 7/8 in.)

Gift of Linda and Jack Lissauer, M.D. 2023.92

Catalogue raisonné: Tamarind 20-304

Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

An active environmentalist, Quick-to-See Smith made a pledge along with some other Native American artists to limit the use of toxic materials and other pollutants in making art.

Description

Salish and Kootenai artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith often references animals with connections to the deep history of Native American culture in her works. Of the coyote, she writes: “It is said that the Human Beings were created when Coyote turned on the light; or when Otter brought daubs of earth to the surface of the water to form the land; or when Turtle raised its back. That was the beginning of our time—of we, the Human Beings. These creation stories draw parallels to Adam and Eve in the garden and are just as powerful.” The idea of a coyote in hiding came about before the 2020 pandemic, but quickly evolved into an image addressing the prolonged isolation the global population was then experiencing.

{{cite web|title=Coyote in Quarantine|url=false|author=Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Valpuri Remling, Tamarind Institute|year=2020|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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