Cochiti Pueblo Female Buffalo Dancer [SOLD]

Joe Hilario Herrera was born at Cochiti Pueblo, the son of Tonita Peña, who was originally from San Ildefonso, but moved to Cochiti after the death of her mother.  She was raised by an aunt and uncle.  Although she lived at Cochiti all of her adult life, she is still known as a San Ildefonso artist.  Her son, Joe, however is recognized as a Cochiti Pueblo artist.  Joe grew up watching his famous mother paint on an almost daily basis.  His early art education was home schooled.

Herrera attended the Santa Fe Indian School and continued on to achieve a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Arts in Education, both from the University of New Mexico.  He continued his education in Puerto Rico, studying briefly under Raymond Jonson.

Herrera chose a career in Indian Education in the New Mexico Department of Education.  This career left little time to pursue painting.  Following his retirement, he began to paint again but serious eye problems in 1994 curtailed his painting production.

He started his painting of pueblo subjects in the style of his mother’s paintings.  He painted pueblo dancers in very traditional Indian School style—flat dimension, no ground plane, and no background or sky scenes.  Later in life, he switched to abstract and modernist painting, based on the influence of Raymond Jonson.  He was one of the first of the Indian artists to move away from traditional representational art into the more abstract forms of self-expression.

This painting is an early one by Herrera.  It is of the female buffalo dancer.  A note in pencil on the back of the painting states “This female dancer precedes The Buffalo Dancers and ‘Turtle Woman’ in the Cochiti Buffalo Dance.  The object in her hand is the buffalo’s tail.”

Dorothy Dunn said that he “did justice to a fine tradition in his authentically drawn ceremonial subjects.  His work was unlike that of his renowned mother, Quah Ah, for his was coolly decorative where hers was warmly natural.” Dunn 1968

Condition: original condition

Provenance: from the collection of a family from upstate New York

Reference: American Indian Painting of the Southwest and Plains Areas by Dorothy Dunn