Multi-story Taos Pueblo and Landscape Scene [SOLD]

Albert Lujan (1892-1948) Weasel Arrow, an early Taos Pueblo painter, was ahead of his time in painting European-American style art rather than the Dorothy Dunn School of art being practiced by most of the other Native American artists of his time. His work was shunned by collectors and the Museum of New Mexico Fine Art Gallery because it was too much like that which the Taos and Santa Fe artists produced. Now he has come of age. His works are being sought by collectors and museums.

Lujan specialized in painting the multi-storied buildings at the pueblo, usually devoid of people. Typically, these views included one of the main pueblo houses, or an isolated adobe residence, each framed by beehive ovens, majestic mountains, a beautiful blue sky, and, occasionally, a ristra of chili.

This small painting is typical of his style featuring predominately the multi-storied houses of Taos Pueblo.  There is the river and a couple bushes in the foreground.  Also, if you look closley, there is a white robed Toas Pueblo man in the middle of the painting (see close up image below). The painting is signed Albert Lujan in lower right.

Condition: appears to be in original condition

Provenance: from a gentleman in Colorado

Suggested Reading: For a compelling and comprehensive overview of the life and artwork of Albert Lujan please see “Albert Lujan: Entrepreneurial Pueblo Painter of Tourist Art (1892 –1948)” by Bradley F. Taylor, American Indian Art Magazine, Volume 25, Number 4, Autumn 2000, page 56.