Opaque Watercolor Black Fawn Leaping over the Sun [SOLD]

There is delicacy in this painting of a black fawn leaping over a rising sun peeping out from behind a mountain.  The painting is well balanced with two peaks of the mountain and two green plants evenly spaced.  It is a very pleasing composition executed on stiff paper.

Abel Sanchez (1899-1971) was known as Oqwa Pi in the Tewa language.  He was the grandfather of San Ildefonso potter Russell Sanchez. Except for what little instruction he received at the Santa Fe Indian School, he had no formal training.  He was accepted as an exceptional artist and did raise and support a large family with his art alone.

Some of his paintings were exhibited in 1931 on a tour of many centers including Yale and Stanford universities, the Joslyn Memorial Museum in Omaha, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Milwaukee Art Institute, whose bulletin noted:

             “His paintings exhibit a fresh immediacy in color and movement of true aboriginal art: A wonderful simplicity, combined with the depth derived from that conventionalism which is the expression of ancient race experience.” Dunn 1968

The painting is signed in lower right but not dated.  It was delivered to us in an unframed manner so it has now been framed with archival materials and wood frame. 

Condition: this Opaque Watercolor Black Fawn Leaping over the Sun is in very good condition

Reference: Dunn, Dorothy.  American Indian Painting of the Southwest and Plains Areas, University of New Mexico Press, 1968

Abel Sanchez (1899-1971) Oqwa Pi - Red Cloud image courtesy Russell Sanchez. Copyright Adobe Gallery. Do not copy or reproduce without permission.