Original Painting “Oraibi Deer” [SOLD]

“Another of the earlier Hopi artists, Riley Sunrise (Quoyavema) worked with Fred Kabotie and Mootzka in illustrating John Louw Nelson’s Rhythm for Rain. He is also known as Quoyavema or Kwayeshva, according to Nelson. His paintings are comparable to Fred Kabotie’s, with some of them showing more action and most of them revealing less detail. Sunrise is represented in the collections of the Denver Art Museum, Gilcrease Institute (Tulsa), and the Southwest Museum. The Museum of the American Indian in New York has an extensive collection of his paintings of native Hopi dances.” (Clara Lee Tanner: Southwest Indian Painting: a changing art.)

According to Snodgrass, Riley Sunrise’s date of birth is unknown. She states that he was born in Anadarko, OK, and adopted by a Kiowa family. AskART lists his birth date as 1914, but their source for this date is not shown. He lived at Second Mesa, Arizona, on the Hopi Reservation. Snodgrass states “While in the 3^rd grade at Anadarko, the artist submitted a series of Hopi symbols in a statewide newspaper contest and received second award.”

In Dorothy Dunn’s book, there is an excellent discussion of an art experiment at the Santa Fe Indian School, in which 10^th grade students painted murals representing various sciences. Riley Sunrise was chosen to paint the mural representing Biology. The discussion is much too detailed to repeat here but is well worth reading.

This painting of an Oraibi Deer was probably completed in the 1930s as it was in a collection of Native fine art of that era. It is signed R. Quoyavema in lower right, titled in lower left. There is a paper crease in upper left but out of the area of the image. Overall, the painting is in very good condition.

Provenance: Original property of Dr. and Mrs. Harold Dunbar Corbusier who had a home in Santa Fe on Old Santa Fe Trail. It was passed down by them to their daughter, Frances Corbusier O'Brien, who, in turn, passed it down to her son, Dr. David S. O'Brien, the current owner. It has been in this same family for three generations.