Portfolio of Indian Drawings

Sure: life followed a rather definite and well ordered pattern, and this pattern was woven about the complex of the agricultural life of the natives.

And, in like manner, art became a part of this "whole," a part of this significant unity; it reflected puebloid life. Pottery was decorated with the age old patterns which came to be associated with the sacred elements, with rain, the clouds, lightning. We can suspect, surely, that symbolism was often the result of similarity between an already developed design and the object of worship.

The actual symbolism of designs was lost in many cases as the centuries passed by, particularly in objects of utilitarian use. Sacred objects, however, including garments, pottery vessels, altars and all their equipment, wall paintings in the ceremonial chambers and elsewhere, any personal adornment for religious wear, all retained a type of decoration of highly symbolic nature. Even after the too often disastrous inroads of Spanish and Anglo-Americans on the lives of the native Indians, the sacred art forms were carried on, generally more in ancient styles than in secular art. Many of the religious designs have survived to the present moment, some with fully understood symbolic meaning, some used "because our ancestors used them." These trends explain much in the development of high conventionalization in religious decorative art. Often the same symbolic elements creep into or even dominate modern painting.

As the Indian took on new expressions in his life as a result of his contacts with the newcomers to the Southwest, the Europeans, he lost many of his native art expressions. But the past was too deeply rooted for all of them to disappear, particularly those connected with his basic religious beliefs. Where he was forced to do so, he compromised, letting the past and the new and bewildering present mix in common or similar art forms. For example, some believe that the double cross introduced to the Pueblo Indians by the Catholics was more readily worn by these native folk because it so closely resembled the highly stylized dragonfly symbol which was very dear to their religious hearts.

Although symbolism is less evident, or even nonexistent in the decoration of everyday utilitarian objects, design carry-over is to be noted not only in the religious field but also in the pots and pans of the kitchen and the table. The Hopi Indians reached back several centuries and today their pottery bears ornamentation inspired by the ceramic styles of their distant forbears. This particular carry-over was made by way of the spade of an archaeologist who revealed the ancestral styles of decoration from his "dig" to a capable Indian woman at Hano. Design is thus carried on from the dim past, but symbolism is obviously lacking. Occasional elements in woven articles of the Pueblo folk look suspiciously like designs in early Spanish textiles. It would be difficult to give symbolic meaning to these.

Thus through the centuries the native Southwesterner developed an art which in time became highly perfected. Many of these art expressions belonged to the group as a whole, whether the highly centralized puebloid folk of the north or the more loosely organized desert dwellers of the South. Likewise, most of the women in any given village would be able to make and decorate pottery; not just a select few would be so gifted. A large number of the pueblo men could and did weave; this was not an occupation for a specialized group. Objects of everyday use as well as ceremonial pieces were tastefully decorated. Art in other words was a part of everyday life, art was lived and expressed by all the people. It was not something separate and apart; it was not an expression to be placed before the villagers in some exclusive spot, such as an art gallery in our own society. And, with rare exception, art continues to serve in this capacity among the native Indians of the Southwest.

In summary of the major prehistoric art trends, then, it may be said that the native Southwest Indian painted utility objects, he painted the body in the dance, he painted ceremonial paraphernalia. The brush and colors are age-old among these folk. In the development of his craft arts, technical perfection was attained through the centuries; in religious art, perfection was demanded, for these things were for the gods. As indicated above, art was applied directly to specific objects; thus it is basically a craft art. Mothered by weaving, and greatly influenced by this earliest expression, the art tended to be geometric. But great variety and even originality were expressed within the limitations of geometricity. This may be illustrated in the fact that of the thousands of clay vessels found in prehistoric ruins, no two are identical. Occasional life forms appear. Many are geometric, some are realistic.

Perhaps the most elaborate arts of the past, and possibly the ones which have the most direct connection with modern painting, would be pictographs and kiva wall decorations. Pictures pecked or carved onto stone walls again meet the difficulties and limitations of techniques and materials. Much geometricity dominates these, but there is great variety and a virility even so. Painted cave wall scenes are more limited in numbers, but promise much in greater detail, in the development of realistic life forms, and in the fact that there are practically no limitations of space and shape of that space as would be the case in the decorated area of a basket or clay vessel.

Kiva wall decoration was seemingly on the verge of becoming the highest art expression of the native peoples at the end of the prehistoric period. In the very few known instances of this decoration of ceremonial chambers, the elaborate ritual scenes with costumed performers, details of altars and other ritual material, and animals, would seem to hold the greatest promise for another art form which was to be born some centuries later, water color paintings.

Perhaps these few comments will help us to better understand why there is such great art talent among the Indians of the Southwest, why art is "part and parcel" of their living. Perhaps these thoughts will give us bases for judging their water color art of today, for any group is subject to its inheritance in some measure, no matter what pressures may be brought to bear upon them from the outside. "Art is in the people," one authority has said of the Southwest Indian, and slight wonder, with such a brilliant heritage in their sacred and secular expressions.

Water color is the most recent art trend among the Indians of the Southwest. In 1886 a Navajo by the name of Choh was making colored drawings of native men and women, birds and animals, a "gaudily dressed chief riding at full tilt upon his Indian steed," and occasional other subjects. Noteworthy is the fact that he depicted costume features with great detail. Slightly later, and just a little over fifty years ago, an archaeologist and ethnologist gave to several Hopi boys, Homovi and White Bear by name, some paper and colors with which to make drawings of their kachinas, or masked dancers. These three names should go down, then, as the first known Southwest Indian artists to make drawings on paper independent of traditional craft or ceremonial attachment.

The Hopi drawings are greatly influenced by many of the traditions of painting passed down through the centuries. There is a stiffness of figure reminiscent of cave and kiva wall drawing. There is care and accuracy in reproduction on minutia, a trait to be seen in the age-old painting of the body of the dancers who are themselves the inspiration for these kachina figures. Exquisite detail, finely expressed, is also typical of much craft art and wall painting of the ancient past.

At the turn of the century, a Navajo man was found making crude little sketches of figures from his tribal sandpaintings with black and red pencils. When given a box of colored crayons by Mr. Kenneth Chapman of Santa Fe, the delighted Indian continued to draw short-legged, long-bodied figures like those in the religious sand pictures. With touches of blue, red, or yellow in the sashes, streamers, or other equipment of the quaint figures, this Indian, Apie Begay, gave a little more life to his drawings than tradition allowed in the picture made of sand. Streamers are flying in the air; so too are sash ends. Even the beads about the necks of the dancers are represented in motion. In the latter an attempt at greater realism gave the artist some trouble, for in several instances he represents the entire necklace on the chest of the figure rather than around the neck. But any art form new to a given group is apt to present difficulties which may find a bit of amusing expression before it attains perfection and beauty. It must be kept in mind also that the above are rather natural errors which would appear in the art of a people who had inherited a tradition of purely decoraNative styles. Decorative art, curbed by techniques and materials, plus a religious art curbed and conventionalized by tradition, gave Apie Begay no model of unrestrained realism which he could copy.

Possibly as a result of the interest of this teacher, one boy from the pueblo, Alfredo Montoya, produced some splendid drawings. His subject matter foreshadows the main theme of modern Rio Grande painting, namely, the native dances, largely ceremonial.

In the second decade of this century another archaeologist played an interesting role in the development of the newly-born water color art. On his dig this archaeologist employed a number of San Ildefonso Indian boys. He encouraged several of these young men to make records of their village dances. They responded with a number of water color drawings which came to be known

to a few white people, and were recognized as works of art by still fewer.

Among the first Rio Grande artists should be named Crescencio Martinez, Alfonso Roybal, Julian Martinez, and Tonita Peña. Two other early artists, from the Hopi pueblos, should be included, Fred Kabotie and Otis Polelonema.

It is of interest to note in passing that some of these first Indian artists were also pottery decorators. In fact, some were ceramic artists before they applied brush to paper. Julian Martinez, for example, decorated the clay vessels formed by his famous wife, Maria. In analyzing some of his mythical birds, which are often gloriously painted in brilliant colors, we see an elaborate combination of the same design elements which were more simplybut equally effectively applied to pottery made by Maria.

One artist in this early group from the Rio Grande developed three outstanding styles in his painting. Alfonso Roybal (also known as Awa Tsireh) has been regarded as the leader of the San Ildefonso artists. One of his styles of painting was realistic, naively so. Ceremonies are portrayed in this style, with dancers in long files presented in such a fashion as to suggest perspective from a house top. This is a common perspective for the Pueblo Indian. To this day one's best and least interrupted view of a ceremony is from the roof top! Alfonso Roybal developed a second style in which realism is modified by symbolism. Often a landscape of terraced mountains, a rainbow, or massed-up clouds serve as background for an animal or hunter, or for several figures. The life forms often exhibit fine realism. His third style is based on creative imaginings, depicting esoteric drawings and com-posite monsters. These three styles have greatly influ-enced many of the other Rio Grande artists.

Perhaps the success of the few Pueblo artists mentioned above who painted before 1920 inspired some of their fellow tribesmen. At any rate, an occasional name is added to the list of artists from time to time after this date. Probably most of them were lacking in any formal training, but there is no doubt that many of these early artists were influenced by white people.

An effort to curtail the painting of native subject matter continued in the Indian schools, with a substitution of pansies and peaches for native dances and village life. About 1928 the ire of a congressman regarding the situ-ation was expressed in these words: "Who wants to go West to buy a picture painted by an Indian of three ap-ples on a plate!" Not long thereafter ideas began to change. In 1933 the first art department in a Southwest Indian school was established at Santa Fe. Other second-ary schools followed this good example.

This new trend meant more than mere instruction, however. It meant that otherwise unavailable art supplies would reach capable hands. In many classes, actual instruction was at a minimum for some teachers felt that the Indian should be left free to express himself as he wished. Guidance, when needed, was there. Thus, for the first time in most classrooms, the Indian could express his own art. It must be kept in mind that many Indian artists never saw the inside of a classroom. Time and again one will see similarities, even identical qualities, in the art of the tutored and the untutored Indian. Often one sees an equal amount of ability. What, then, explains this? It may be suggested once again that the rich cultural inheritance of the Indians of the Southwest is very definitely influential. This inheritance is a living, moving force which has found an outlet in a new medium, water color art.

It was not until European exhibitions of Southwest Indian paintings had put them on the "acceptable" art lists that the people of the United States really became aware of this important expression. After 1920, there were (and continue to be!) many exhibits in the best galleries in America of this native art.

At present there are well over a hundred artists, some of them with international reputations. Practically all Southwestern tribal groups are represented, although the Yuman and Piman speaking people can claim very few painters. Most of the pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico have one or more outstanding artists, with quite a few important names from the pueblos of San Ildefonso and the Hopi villages. Both the Apaches and Navajos have produced their share of modern water colorists of note.

Although water color (from a child's box of a few colors to the wide range of Shiva paints) is the chief medium used by the Indian, he has turned occasionally to other media. A few have used oils. Some have employed poster paints which have been used for decorating the Hopi kachina doll for many years. Most of the better artists of today use Shiva paint, a superior color medium.

Many a good Indian painting has been made on poor paper. The earliest drawings of the Navajo artist Beatian

Yazz (Little No Shirt of “Spin a Silver Dollar” fame). were done on brown wrapping paper or ends of cardboard boxes. In like manner many another artist has done his first work on whatever scraps he could find. Such a situation is hard to realize in our world of plenty, but in many isolated homes or villages, even a scrap of paper may be unavailable. Recently an Indian teacher decried the lack of materials, for he had many promising children in his classroom and no art supplies!

Subject matter is varied in native Southwest painting. The Pueblo Indian is perhaps somewhat more restricted than the Apache or Navajo in this matter, but then the life of the former is more ordered and more subject to the group as a whole. Ceremonial dances claim first attention in the Rio Grande pueblos, with some treatment of mystical subjects and everyday life. Kachinas are uppermost in the minds of Hopi artists. A friend said to me recently, “Give a group of Hopi children pencils, crayons, or water colors and the first thing they will draw will be a kachina.” And most of these kachinas will have no background; as Ruth Underhill says, “The bright little figures always stand out in space with nothing to show what world they move in.” To be sure, even the conventional Hopis are branching out, and we see today simple or elaborate village scenes of women grinding corn, combing hair, men gathering corn in the fields, and so on. Less than a year ago we saw a most charming scene painted by a 14 year old Hopi boy-his entire village in the background; foot and wagon trails leading up to the mesa; humans and animals in considerable numbers, each intent upon his respective activity, one driving a donkey, others playing, or working in the village.

Horse. But the Navajo is not limited to the painting of horses he runs the gamut from formal and conventional portrayals of sandpaintings or parts thereof, through ceremonial figures or groups, squaw dances, hunting and war scenes, various animals, and into incidents based on myths and legends. As a whole, Navajo art is freer and more realistic than that of the Pueblo. So too is Apache art, which in general is more like that of the Navajo.

With the establishment of art departments in Indian schools, particularly on the secondary level, it is obvious that the subject matter and styles which characterize the different tribal groups would have a tendency to change. After all, gathered together in one classroom would be children from the Rio Grande, Zuni, Hopi, Navajo, and Apache tribes. Group emphasis remains somewhat the same, but in many individual cases there is definite exchange in ideas and styles. For example, a Zuni boy who studied at Santa Fe now paints horses very much as do the Navajos.

There are names of Indian artists too numerous to list but it might be well to speak of a few additional, outstanding painters of today. Allan Houser is the leading Apache artist. Figures of devil dancers, scenes from everyday life, and other subject matter are dynamically and realistically portrayed by him. Houser recently received a Guggenheim fellowship to continue his art work.

Many Navajos have “taken” to art. Quincy Tahoma has painted for some time in Santa Fe. Through the years his work has become more virile, more intense in use of color, larger in size, and full of many figures. Recently he has stressed bloody war scenes and buffalo hunts. Harrison Begay is as quiet and peaceful as Tahoma is forceful. Begay treats of a wide variety of subject matter. From deer quietly drinking at a pool to a hunting scene, there is an air of calm, of peace. He stresses this further in the use of lighter color, often adding Chinese white to soften the more brilliant hues. An extreme delicacy pervades his work. Having painted side by side with Begay, it is not surprising to find that Charlie Lee, a tribal brother, reveals many of the same qualities.

Andy Tsihnahjinnie, whose life has been quite diversified, depicts a number of styles in his painting. Varied as is the subject matter of many Navajo artists, he too has done everything from ceremonial scenes, war and hunting incidents, portrayals of every day life, to esoteric drawings. Tsihnahjinnie has experimented with color a great deal. Once he used a black sheet against which he painted a fire dance scene, red flames, white smoke, and the white painted bodies of the dancers effectively portrayed against this unusual ground. At one "phase" he painted the flesh of his Navajo subjects yellow in color, during another they were bright terra cotta.

Among the Hopi, Fred Kabotie, has surely remained the outstanding artist. Several years ago his work was featured at a large gallery in Dallas, Texas. His influence has been great on his fellow tribesmen, for almost all of the Hopis follow Kabotie's early example of modelling in color (rather than using flat color), his use of occasional shadows, meticulous detail, and emphasis on the dance figure or groups of figures. Fred Kabotie was also granted a Guggenheim fellowship, a great tribute to his ability. No paintings by Fred Kabotie appear in this article as he is to be featured in a story to be published by ARIZONA HIGHWAYS at a later date.

In the Rio Grande area the "San Ildefonso movement," as the early painting by members of that village was labelled, set the pace for the Indian pueblos up and down the valley. The trends of this art have been mentioned above in connection with Awa Tsireh. To his and the other names given should be added Gilbert Atencio, Abel Sanchez, Velino Herrera, Jose Rey Toledo, and Tony Martinez. Tony Martinez is the son of Maria and the late Julian Martinez.

Abel Sanchez, or Oqwa Pi, was painting before 1920. Although he overcomes certain difficulties which dominate his early work, as stiffness and poor proportions, he retains other traits which become typical. For example, heads remain relatively large. His use of color has become fresher, his depiction of action more vivid. Yet, withal, his paintings retain a great simplicity. Gilbert Atencio, one of the youngest of the San Ildefonso painters, has studied art for several years. He clings to traditional subject matter and treatment, exhibiting extreme delicacy, modelling in fine lines, and excellent action.

Outstanding among the Rio Grande artists is Velino Herrera, or Ma-pe-wi, from the pueblo of Zia. With no formal training, he has developed several styles of painting and uses a variety of subjects. Through the years he has become bolder and more definite, and has used more brilliant colors.

Although Jose Rey Toledo of Jemez Pueblo has had more formal training than many of the Indian artists, he, too, retains much that is native in subject matter, in the absence of ground lines, and in treatment of detail.

Geronima Montoya, who is head of the art department at the Santa Fe Indian school, is an artist in her own rights. She is from San Juan Pueblo. Santa Clara is well represented by another capable artist, Pablita Velarde. who did some fine ethnological studies in water color for the Bandelier National Monument Museum near Santa Fe. Master of refined detail, especially as represented in single dance figures, is J. H. Herrera from Cochiti. Many of his water colors portray several dance figures in rather restrained action, always in good, positive colors, and with exquisite detail.

Another name in this short list is that of Pop Chalee, a Taos Pueblo woman whose oriental touch is outstanding. This is best illustrated in her paintings of forest scenes, with three or five trees in the background, delicate and unreal in their leafing, and in front of, between, and above them whimsical portrayals of rabbits, deer, birds, and other delightfully depicted forms of life. Pop Chalee has also painted fanciful horses with long and delicate manes and tails which cover her paintings like string.

In conclusion it may be said that Southwest Indian painting is new in materials, some of its methods, and in occasional subject matter. But it may be added in the same breath that it is age-old in tradition, that painting has been an intimate part of the lives of the ancestors of these folk for two thousand years. The meticulous care with which clay vessels were painted, the symmetry and balance so characteristic of these and other designs, all of these qualities and many more have been developed and passed along from century to century among the Indians. Varied color was known in the past, a greater variety and range have been added in water color. Impressive repetition of frets or triangles on ancient pottery find their counterpart in rhythmic and repetitive rows of dancers of Pueblo artists today. Naive simplicity and straight-forward depiction are as typical of this Indian art today as in the older styles of the past. Delicacy and exquisite detail are the result of centuries of training in brush control. Equally vivid in design are the geometrically decorated clay vessel of a thousand years ago and the water color painted today.

Perhaps most promising in this Indian water color art is its youth, a youth which so often gives great vigor and strength, and a feeling of spontaneity to the paintings. And the calmness and depth of the Indian, which seem to pervade his nature, add a last splendid touch to many of his water colors, subtle emotion.