Kiowa Indian Art Portfolio “Mother and Papoose” [SOLD]

Stephen Mopope (1898-1974) was born and raised on the Kiowa Reservation, Indian Territory, later to become Oklahoma. He was primarily a painter and dancer most of his life.

“Mopope’s grandfather was a Spanish captive, kidnapped by the Kiowas from a wagon train crossing the prairie and reared by Chief Many Bears. On the Kiowa side he was a descendant of Appiatan, a noted Kiowa warrior. His granduncles were Silverhorn (Haungooah) and Hakok. They found him drawing designs in the sand and decided to teach him how to paint on tanned skins in the old Kiowa way. Mopope’s childhood education by his grandmother was in the Kiowa tradition. He is one of the original Kiowa Five and was primarily a painter and dancer most of his life.”
-Snodgrass 1968.

This silkscreen “Mother and Papoose” was one of the 30 silkscreens published in the portfolio Kiowa Indian Art—Watercolor Paintings in Color by the Indians of Oklahoma, by C. Szwedzicki of Nice, France, in 1929. Only 750 copies of the volume were published. This image is number 220 of the 750. It has been matted and shrink-wrapped, not framed.

Provenance: From the estate of Margaret Morse Nice, an ornithologist from Oklahoma.