Original Painting of “Animals Coming Down from the Hills at Dawn” [SOLD]

Many of us have attended plaza dances at San Ildefonso Pueblo because it is an easy drive from Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Fewer of us have witnessed the earlier part of those dances in the wee hours of the morning.  Before the dancers publicly celebrate in the plaza, there is an early morning entrance of the dancers from the hills.  Around sunrise, the animal dancers come to the pueblo from far away and they are met by the religious members who are waiting for their arrival.  When they arrive, they are then greeted and a blessing ceremony performed.  Women dust them with sacred corn meal.

This painting, by Gilbert Atencio, is the only painting of the arrival of the dancers and the blessing of them which I have ever seen painted by any artist.   Since it is a ceremony that is too early in the morning for most people to see, it is therefore a painting of major importance.  It is important as ethnographic documentation.  It is a good pictorial record of costuming, participants, and purpose. Who better to paint such an important event than an artist whose professional career was as a medical illustrator at Los Alamos National Labs.  We know that Atencio was as precise in his ceremonial paintings as he was in his work at the Lab.

The painting is signed in lower right and dated 1962.

Condition: appears to be in original condition

Provenance: originally in the collection of Byron C. Butler of the Heard Museum.  Exhibited at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Philbrook in Oklahoma, the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, and the Oklahoma City Museum.  Currently in the collection of the family of Richard Spivey, author of books on Maria Martinez.

Recommended Reading: Modern by Tradition: American Indian Painting in the Studio Style by Bruce Bernstein, et al