Copyright Diego Romero and Black Rock Editions, LLC

Pueb Fiction

Artist Diego Romero (American (Cochiti Pueblo), born 1964)

Date2020

MediumTwo-color lithograph

DimensionsImage: 19 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. (49.5 x 41.9 cm) Sheet: 23 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (59.7 x 52.1 cm)

Credit LinePurchased through the John A. Petersen Print Acquisition Fund

CultureAmerican; Cochiti Pueblo

MarkingsSomerset watermark BL; Press stamp on verso BL

PortfolioPueb Fiction

Object numberPC2020.07

ClassificationsPrint Collection

DescriptionA woman poses on a bed, an open book face down in front of her, her feet kicked up behind her, mimicking the famous image of Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction's (1994) promotional poster. Romero's adaptation of the image differs in his heroine's attire: she is dressed in a version of traditional Pueblo dress, jewelry, shoes, and headdress. The title of the book she reads is "Cochiti"--a reference to the artist's tribe--and depicts the historic church located in Cochiti, New Mexico. Surrounding the scene is a graphic checkered border, that begins and ends in the upper right corner.
InterpretationsAlthough he was born in Berkeley, California, Diego Romero has spent most of his professional life near his ancestral home in New Mexico. He moved to Santa Fe as a young man to study at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Romero later continued his art training at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles before receiving his MFA, in 1993, from UCLA. Today, he specializes in ceramic sculpture and printmaking. Romero’s practice typically involves the ironic combination of traditional designs with subject matter drawn from contemporary, “pop culture” sources. In this recent lithograph, the artist draws directly on promotional imagery associated with Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film, Pulp Fiction, to trouble the romanticizing of Pueblo cultures by non-Indigenous peoples. Using the familiar palette and checkerboard framing motifs of his own earthenware pottery, Romero gives his figure the noir-ish pose of Uma Thurman in a well-known Hollywood poster. His fictional Pueblo “star” wears a headdress, moccasins, and reads a text titled Cochiti, however. Romero’s works can today be found at the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Peabody-Essex Museum, and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. Pueb Fiction is the first work by Romero to enter University Galleries’ collection and was selected for USD by Zoë Morales Martinez, Class of ‘21. - John P. Murphy, Hoehn Curatorial Fellow for Prints, 2018-21

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