Hopi Pueblo Hemis Flat Katsina Doll [SOLD]

The Hemis Katsina is probably the most beautiful and best known of all Hopi Katsinas. His elaborate headdress, called a tableta, is partly responsible for his beauty. His body is painted with black corn smut with light colored half moons on the chest. He wears a kilt, which has been elaborately embroidered. The tableta is painted with phallic and cloud symbols and capped with feathers. He appears in the Home Dance or Niman Ceremony. No other katsinas, neither clowns nor side dancers appear with the line of Hemis except the Hemis Manas.

Jimmie Koots is a well-known carver of Katsina dolls in the Santa Fe area because his dolls were featured at a shop called Rare Things by Dutton in downtown Santa Fe for years and years. His full name is James Kootshongsie. He had a fascinating life and we have printed information from the book “Hopi Katsina 1,600 Artist Biographies” by Greg Schaaf. To see this biography, click on the artist’s name just below the picture of the Katsina doll.

Provenance: From the estate of Transcendental artist Florence Pierce of Albuquerque who passed away in 2007 at the age of 89.