Navajo Wood Carving of Small Male Figure by Charlie Willeto [SOLD]

This Navajo wood carving by Diné folk artist Charlie Willeto is small in size but every bit as impactful as his larger works.  A single piece of wood was used, as per the artist’s usual. The area surrounding the figure’s white face was cut away, creating a head that protrudes from the carving.  The flat area from which the head protrudes creates raised arms. The figure’s chest is embellished with a beautiful design; there are triangles within triangles of various colors, surrounding a white central triangle.  Triangles circle the figure’s waist, too, alternating between solid white and outlined black. A small hole exists, creating a mouth. Expressive eyes complete the figure’s face.

The Museum of New Mexico Press’ 2002 book Collective Willeto: The Visionary Carvings of a Navajo Artist includes an essay by museum director Walter Hopps. In his essay, Hopps describes the significance of Willeto’s works: “In the end, the cross-cultural phenomenon affecting Willeto’s art is less one of drawing on adjacent tradition and more one of tapping the deepest channels of human creativity. The result embraces materials outside the usual art of Navajo culture and a stylistic expression markedly different from the figurative work of Hopi and Zuni traditions. It is hard to believe that Willeto created a whole body of work in four years, starting at the age of sixty, but some things in life come in astounding bursts. The spirit was on him in ways both Breton and Debuffet would have recognized. In creating this art, Willeto was responding to a much more profound calling.”

Charlie Willeto (1897-1964) was a Diné artist who was unrecognized during his lifetime but has, in recent years, received a great deal of acclaim for his folk art carvings.  Willeto’s father Pablo Walito was a Diné medicine man; his mother Adzaan Tsosie “Slender Woman” was a medicine woman. Willeto followed into his parents’ profession, and also married a woman who was born into the traditional Diné healing arts. In 1961, Willeto began creating the carvings for which he is celebrated today.  The carvings ranged in size from a few inches tall to nearly life-size, with the majority standing between one and three feet. Willeto is believed to have completed about 400 carvings in total. Today, his works are included in prominent public and private collections including the Smithsonian and the Museum of International Folk Art.

Condition: this Navajo Wood Carving of Small Male Figure by Charlie Willeto is in excellent condition

Provenance: private collection

Recommended Reading: Collective Willeto: The Visionary Carvings of a Navajo Artist, Museum of New Mexico Press

Relative Links: Navajo Nation - Diné, Charlie Willeto