Hopi Pueblo Powamu Puppet Kiva Ceremony [SOLD]

The ceremony depicted in this painting by Mootzka is one that is conducted during the period of Powamu, or Bean Dance, inside a kiva. The proceedings were explained to me by a Hopi woman who visited the gallery during the Indian Market weekend of 2010. She said that she had once attended the ceremony.

The kiva hatch is closed before the beginning of the ceremony so that the room is completely dark. A loud bang is heard by the attendees and the informant told us that it was caused by someone throwing down a bag of white flour. Of course, the attendees are not yet aware of the cause of the noise. The hatch is then opened and light enters the kiva. White flour is floating throughout the room and Katsinas and a stage can be made out through the haze.

The two corn grinding females are two-foot tall puppets in front of a screen painted with phallic symbols including tadpoles or sperm, arrows, and rainbow-like clouds. On top of the screen is a bird which mechanically runs back and forth across the screen. The puppets grind corn through manipulation from behind the screen.

Flanking the corn grinding puppets are eight Katsinas—four on each side. On the left in the painting, the Katsinas are (front to back) Hoote, Nahoyleetsiw’kopatsoki, Hotooto, and Talavai. On the right, front to back, they are Holi, Navan, Unidentified, and Talavai. The two kneeling katsinas are Heheya (left) and Hahai-i-Wuhti (right).

According to Dockstader in Great North American Indians: Profiles in Life and Leadership (1977) “Mootzka was especially noted for his representations of tribal ceremonies and mythological scenes. Using a full palette, he demonstrated a great feeling for color. Also notable was his attention to fine detail.”

Jeanne Snodgrass stated that “Mootzka had no formal art training. He often observed Fred Kabotie (q.v.) painting at Oraibi Day School, and it may have been there that he learned the technique of watercolor painting. Later, in Santa Fe, he was sponsored by Frank Patania, who taught him silversmithing. At the time of his death, Mootzka was devoting almost all his artistic talents to silverwork.”

Waldo Mootzka’s work has been widely compared to that of Fred Kabotie in terms of Mootzka’s outlines and proportions. In the 1930s, John Louw Nelson employed Mootzka, among others, to create paintings for sale that portrayed Indians in everyday life. In 1940, Mootzka was in an automobile accident that exacerbated his tuberculosis, and he died later that year.

Because of his early death at the age of only 30 years and his career as a jeweler, very few significant paintings by Mootzka are available for collectors to own. This painting is an absolute masterpiece and is in excellent condition. It dates to the circa 1930.

Information Source for Greater Detail: Children of Cottonwood: Piety and Ceremonialism in Hopi Indian Puppetry, by Armin W. Geertz and Michael Lamatuway’ma, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln. 1987. Note: a copy of this hardback book will be provided with the purchase of this painting.

Documentation: A significant professional analysis of the artist and the ceremony pictured here has been prepared by a nationally recognized expert on Hopi ceremonies and this documentation will be given to the purchaser of the painting.