Mark Swazo Hinds Large Carved Stone Fetish Bear [SOLD]

The single most famous art medium pursued by Mark Swazo Hinds of Tesuque Pueblo was stone fetishes. He carved fetishes from stone in small sizes to very large ones. This stone fetish is one of his larger creations. Following the completion of carving and polishing the stone, Mark added an enormous arrangement of feathers to the fetish. It is believed that the powers of a fetish are enhanced by adding items to it—sometimes arrows, feathers, shells, turquoise, and other items.

This large and beautiful stone bear fetish sculpture could have stood on its own without embellishments, but Mark chose to add a spectacular arrangement of feathers. Additionally, he carved a pair of small bear fetishes which hang on either side of the major one, and a group of seashells adjacent to the small fetishes. You can view all this in the image below.  Overall, this is one of his major fetish carvings.

Mark Swazo Hinds was born in Berkley, California, on January 16, 1959, to Rita Gunther and Patrick Swazo Hinds. He passed away on December 9, 2023. Mark had attended Pojoaque High School, Haskell Indian Junior College in Kansas, and the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. His work is in the permanent collections of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, on the grounds of the Santa Fe Opera, and in many other collections throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: this Mark Swazo Hinds Large Carved Stone Fetish Bear is from a client of Adobe Gallery

Recommended Reading: Fetishes and Carvings of the Southwest by Oscar T. Branson

TAGS: Tesuque Pueblo, Native American Paintings, Patrick Swazo Hinds, Mark Swazo Hinds