Laguna Pueblo Massive Pueblo Corn Dance by Calvin Fenley Chavez [SOLD]

This incredible painting of a Pueblo Corn Dance was created by Calvin Fenley Chavez, a San Felipe and Laguna artist whose work we had not previously seen.  Fortunately, Chavez is included in some of the major texts related to Native painting, which allowed us to learn a bit more about the man behind this one-of-a-kind image.  Clara Lee Tanner’s Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art makes note of the interesting fact that there are very few notable painters from the otherwise artistically rich pueblos of Acoma and Laguna.  Her choice for the most significant early Acoma or Laguna painter was Chavez, who earns a lengthy passage of praise for his unique style.

This particular piece is a marvel of ambition and creativity.  Chavez’ subject here is a ceremonial dance, which is typical of an early Pueblo painting.  The manner in which the dance is depicted is unlike anything we’ve seen before.  Chavez painted everything: a massive dance procession, singers and drummers, pueblo clowns, dozens of spectators, and the buildings surrounding the plaza.  The dancers in the foreground are pictured in incredible detail.  As the line winds away from the viewer, the dancers become simpler and smaller.  The spectators in the distance are ghostly streaks of translucent color, dotted with small brown heads.  This arrangement—great detail up front, giving way to broad and repetitive work in the background—gives the image a pleasantly rhythmic, hypnotic feel.  It’s not unlike that which might be experienced when watching an actual pueblo dance.  The successful recreation of that feeling is this painting’s most extraordinary attribute.

While the overall feel of the image is special, the details and quirks are wonderful as well.  The musicians—mouths open, rattles and drums in hand—are particularly alluring.  The bold, bright colors used in the foreground dancers’ clothing are a rare treat.  The clowns, busy and active as usual, are deserving of their front-and-center position.  Even the perspective from which we see the scene is worth pointing out.  The rooftop lines framing the scene’s bottom edge tell the viewer that they are—like those spectators far in the distance—watching the dance from the rooftop.  This is a unique and excellent painting.  We hope to see more works by Calvin Fenley Chavez.

The painting is signed Calvin Fenley Chavez, faintly in white paint, in lower left. A rain cloud and lightning design decorates the lower left corner. which is a hallmark symbol he used in paintings with 100 or more figures in them (according to document on back of this painting). It is framed in a simple wood frame with no mat. A letter attached to the back of the painting fails to identify the artist; the man who wrote it must have missed the faint white signature. He does note that "because of the source and associated material that was with the painting, I feel sure that my painting is from about 1938." We do not know what those materials were or if the man was correct, but the painting and paper do appear to be like others from that period.

Calvin Fenley Chavez (1924- ) is or was an artist who was born to a San Felipe father and Laguna mother.  He attended Winslow High School and studied art at the University of Northern Arizona, and then worked as a sign painter and commercial artist.  As of the 1995 date of publication of Patrick D. Lester’s Biographical Directory of Native American Painters, Chavez was making his living as a full-time artist.  He exhibited at Santa Fe Indian Market and other major shows.  He also carved plaques with Katsina imagery.

Condition: good condition —some small stains and abrasions, and a short tear in the paper in bottom center

Provenance: this Laguna Pueblo Massive Pueblo Corn Dance by Calvin Fenley Chavez is private Santa Fe collection

Recommended Reading:

- Clara Lee Tanner’s Southwest Indian Painting: a changing art

- Patrick D. Lester’s The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters