Pueblo Original Pastel Painting of Pueblo Ceremony [SOLD]

Adobe Gallery had a long relationship with Tommy Edward Montoya. We featured him as one of our primary artists at the Albuquerque gallery for a number of years. He was a wonderful person and an outstanding pastel artist. When he passed away in August 2009, there were three pastel paintings in his studio that he had finished and not yet sold. We purchased two and sold them last year. Now, we are presenting the third and final one.

This painting presents to the viewer a pueblo ceremony or dance event, but the exact nature of which we do not know. The large Katsina on the left carries a rattle in his left hand and large eagle feathers in his right. His right leg is raised as in a dance position. The smaller figure in the center, portrayed with a turquoise mask, appears to have a yucca leaf spread in his left hand and a rattle in his right hand. The female Katsina on the right carries a jar snuggled in her left arm. A multi-story pueblo village appears in the background and a large ladder descends into a kiva.

Ohkay Owingeh is the largest, most northerly, and the most geographically isolated of the six Tewa villages. It is known as one of the pueblos where ritual and political matters continue to be strictly observed. Living and working in this environment, Montoya developed two independent sides of his art: figurative studies of traditional Tewa ritual; and his more cerebral, purely abstract studies of color and form. His popular figurative works, such as this one, brim with vitality and action. His strong asymmetric compositions come to life as if one were witnessing a ceremonial function at the pueblo rather than viewing a piece of art.

The painting is beautifully framed using all acid-free materials for backing and silver tinted wood frame with a gold wash over the silver. Since pastel paintings tend to shed the pastel colors that then fall to the matting, it was decided to frame this one without matting to prevent the pastel colors from defacing the matting.

Provenance: From the estate of the artist.