Painting of a Navajo on Horseback Chasing Three Deer [SOLD]

Narciso Platero Abeyta (1918-1998) Ha So De - Fiercely Ascending was known for his Indian-themed paintings, which, stylistically, are atypical of most of the Indian art of his generation. Abeyta attended the Santa Fe Indian School and the University of New Mexico. He also participated in exhibitions throughout the United States and in Paris. He won awards at the San Francisco Fair and at the New Mexico State Fair.

Abeyta regularly utilized a “somber” color palette as Clara Lee Tanner refers to it in her book Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art. She states that he tended towards blacks, browns, burnt ochre and reds. Tanner also notes that Abeyta was more interested in “bold effects than in minute detail.”

In this painting, we see Tanner’s descriptions of the artist’s use of colors as well as his use of a bold effect.  There are browns in the deer, bright red for the horse and turquoise in the Navajo’s shirt and the plants.   Boldness is most evident in the decoration of the horse.  Ha So De had a unique style of Native art and it has not been copied by any other Native artist.  It remains unique.

There is an excellent article entitled HA-SO-DE One of the First Individualists by Guy and Doris Monthan in American Indian Art Magazine, Summer 1976

Condition: appears to be in original condition

Recommended Reading: Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art by Clara Lee Tanner.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery

Provenance:  Purchased from Adobe Gallery in 1998 by a family from Illinois from whom we now have it back for re-sale.