Original Painting Entitled “Pronghorn Bucks” [SOLD]

Special Value Offer: The owner of this painting has authorized a 1/3rd price reduction from the original price of $950 to a new price of $760.

“One Navajo artist whose paintings never fail to appeal in their quiet tone and delicacy of color is Charlie Lee. ‘Yel-Ha-Yah’ is his signature, and he has explained it as a shortening of Hush-Ka-Yel-Ha-Yah, meaning ‘warrior who came out,’ a name given him by his grandmother. And a more peaceful warrior never existed.

“Lee was born in western New Mexico on April 14, 1926, near Red Rock, Arizona.  He started school at the age of seven, attending at one time or another St. Michaels Catholic Indian School, Southern Ute Indian School, Red Rock Day School, and Shiprock School, and Santa Fe Indian School in his senior year.  “When he was nine or ten years old, Charlie Lee often took care of his grandfather’s horses…(He) has often spoken lovingly and proudly in the same breath of the long line of palominos, pintos, buckskins, and a burro at the end, going to water.  “In his senior year at the Santa Fe Indian School, Lee took art under Geronima Montoya.  Upon his graduation in 1946, he returned to the Navajo Reservation.  Because he ‘did not feel at home at all,’ he returned to the school in Santa Fe and undertook more work.” Tanner 1973

Charlie Lee reached his style in 1947 and it was one of simple and uncluttered subject matter.  He was quoted as having said that the art of his fellow Indians is “cluttered up.”  He preferred to present a single figure in soft mauve tones using casein paints.  His casein paints were never harsh or bright, sometimes being toned down by the addition of Chinese white.  Most often he presented his images with little or no ground plane and no distracting objects in the background.

This painting of three Pronghorn Bucks was rendered in Lee’s typical soft casein colors on a soft cream background.  The three bucks are just standing around observing the buttes in the background.  The painting is signed Yel Ha Yah and dated ’49 in lower right.  The mat and backing materials have been replaced with acid-free materials and the painting then placed back in the original blond wood frame.

Condition: the cream color of the artist board is sufficiently light toned so that there has been very little if any discoloration from the original

Reference and Recommended Reading:  Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art by Clara Lee Tanner. This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery.

Provenance: from the collection of a gentleman from Chicago.  Formerly from the estate of Baseball Maverick Bill Veeck, purchased when he had a ranch in New Mexico in the 1950s.