Diné (Navajo) Yeibichai Blessing Ceremony [R]

Harrison Begay Haskay Yahne Yah (The Wandering Boy) is a living legend among Indian artists. His traditional flat, graphic art depicts life, animals and religion of the Navajo people. He has frequently been copied but never equaled. He attended the Santa Fe Indian School in 1934 where he completed his high school education. It was there that he met and studied under the well-known Dorothy Dunn, whose influence stayed with him throughout his career.

This painting is a presentation of a Yeibichai Blessing ceremony and it is the only one of this elongated style I have ever seen.  Many of his similar ceremony scenes depict the Yei figures in circular positions, but this one has them in a line with the young male and female each with sacred corn meal.

The colors used by Begay in his paintings are pastel shades in matte finish which results in a pleasing “easy on the eyes” painting.  It is the softness of his colors that distinguishes his paintings from those who have attempted to follow his lead.  In The Studio style of the Santa Fe Indian School, there is neither ground plane nor background items, just the important Yei personalities which he chose to feature.

The painting is signed in lower right with his English name and in lower left with his Diné name.  Interestingly, the painted names are slightly above the same executed in pencil.  The painting is not dated.

Condition: original condition

Provenance: from a gentleman in Albuquerque

Recommended Reading: Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art by Clara Lee Tanner