Beatien Yazz Pair of Paintings of Diné Children [SOLD]

This pair of paintings was created by Diné artist Beatien Yazz.  For these pieces, he focused his attention on Diné children.  These are sweet and beautiful snapshots of daily life, with a playful tone that will appeal to many collectors.  Yazz was able to navigate tonal shifts skillfully and consistently from image to image, creating whimsical images like these just as successfully as he did intense ceremonial scenes and exciting hunt scenes.  Yazz’ line work is bold and expressive, and his bright colors work well for these particular subjects.  An identically sized matched pair like this is a rare treat. 

In one image, a young girl plays with a pair of birds, holding one in her hand as another lands on her fingertip.  In the other image, a boy reclines, staring into the sky.  His dog and his slingshot rest on the ground beside him as he observes the movements of a pair of orange butterflies.  The plants, rocks, and billowing cloud designs in each image match one another, suggesting that these two children are not far away from each other.  This is another example of fine work from the talented and influential Beatien Yazz.

Each painting is signed B. Yazz in lower right.  They are framed identically, under plexiglass and blue matting in wood frames.

Beatien Yazz (1928- ) Little No Shirt (Jimmy Toddy) is a painter who was born in 1928 on the Navajo Reservation.  At an early age, Yazz met Bill and Sallie Lippincott, traders at Wide Ruins Trading Post. They recognized Yazz’s talent and made available to him scraps of paper and other equipment so that he might practice his artwork.  Alberta Hannum’s book Spin a Silver Dollar tells the story of the Lippincotts and the young Navajo boy they encouraged. The book was illustrated by the boy himself—Beatien Yazz. He served in the U.S. Marines in World War II and was a member of the famed Navajo Code Talkers. Following the war, he returned to the reservation and began to paint in earnest. He specialized in subjects familiar to him in his daily life on the reservation. He has been eminently popular with collectors since the 1950s.

Condition: excellent condition

Provenance: this Beatien Yazz Pair of Paintings of Diné Children is from a private collection of a New Mexico resident

Recommended Reading: YAZZ Navajo Painter by J.J. Brody, Sallie R. Wagner, and Beatien Yazz

Relative Links: Navajo Reservation, Spin a Silver Dollar, Paint the Wind, paintings, Yazz: Navajo Painter, Beatien Yazz, Navajo Nation Painter