San Ildefonso Pueblo Painting of Male Butterfly Dancer [SOLD]

Awa Tsireh was early recognized beyond his native world as an outstanding Indian artist. His watercolors where sent by Alice Corbin Henderson to the Arts Club of Chicago for a special exhibit in 1920. His paintings appeared in early exhibits in Santa Fe, and he was among the several artists to receive prizes at the first Santa Fe Indian Market. In 1925, the Chicago papers were generous in their acclaim for his exhibit in the Newberry Library. The Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts in New York in 1931 included Awa Tsireh paintings.

Awa Tsireh's style was basically a form of naïve realism used to portray everyday and religious scenes, with the human figure most often predominant. This painting is typical of his style. There is no ground line, not even a patch of earth appears beneath or around the central figure.

Awa Tsireh was born in 1898 and died in 1955. He was painting before 1917. He was the oldest of the early group of pueblo painters. His formal education had not extended beyond primary grades. He was versatile in his styles of painting. He was equally comfortable with representational or semi-realistic, representational plus conventional, and abstract.

In this painting, he has shown in remarkable detail the front and back views of a male Buffalo Dancer from his pueblo. It is interesting that he equipped the dancer with the wide embroidered sash on his right side in the frontal view and with the rain sash in the back view. Perhaps these two images were painted at different times or perhaps he chose just to illustrate two different sashes. The embroidery on the kilt is slightly different on the two images.

Condition: Both paintings are in original excellent condition. They are matted with acid-free materials and the wood frame is in very good condition. There are no problems with these paintings.