Original Painting “Medicine Man and Sandpainting” [SOLD]

Harrison Begay (1914-2012) Haashké yah Níyá - The Wandering Boy was a successful and widely influential painter and printmaker.  Begay was one of the most well-known students of the Santa Fe Indian School, where he was educated from 1934 to 1940.  He received a great deal of international acclaim during his long career, and was one of the first Native American artists to support himself financially with his artwork.  Begay enjoyed a long career as a prolific creator of “flat-style” watercolor paintings, celebrating beauty and serenity with a warm and inviting color palette. Begay always painted with soft pastel colors—never anything bright or garish—and chose scenes of Navajo daily life and religious rituals as his subjects.  

“Extreme delicacy becomes uppermost in this artist’s works with lines so fine that it seems impossible that they could have been made with a brush.  Coupled with this are the keen powers of observation of which the Indian has more than his share. In Begay’s work there is often the disciplined balance between the heavy formalities of inherited tradition and a warm realism which developed within a very short span of years… Begay evolved a style that is essentially his own, a style which influenced others, but which has not been equaled in perfection by any of those he has so greatly affected.  Lines that breathe rhythm; clean, cool, and sensitive coloring; a gentleness of figure; peace and calm throughout, from facial expression to composition; impeccable drawing, the best in Navajo art; simplicity coupled with realistic detail; few and conventional plant forms or other background effects; harmony and serenity-—these and other more elusive traits and qualities are combined in the inimitable Begay manner.” Tanner 1973

This piece is titled “Medicine Man and Sandpainting.”  Within a circular shape in the center of the image, the titular Medicine Man is depicted in profile.  He looks kind and alluring, providing the viewer with an excellent example of the “gentleness of figure” and “peace and calm” that Tanner praised in Begay’s work.  Extending out from this circle towards the painting’s corners are four plants, which most likely represent beans, squash, corn and tobacco. Their colors—blue, white, yellow, and black—correspond with those of the Four Directions and the Navajo creation story’s Four Worlds.  In between these four resources are two detailed Yei figures and two round figures. Prior to painting any of the aforementioned figures, Begay used stippling to coat the gray board with yellow paint, adding an interesting texture to the image. The yellow paint is concentrated more heavily around the circle’s edges, giving the Medicine Man a subtle, mystical glow.

A typewritten tag on the back of the painting identifies it as having been sold for $85 by Balcomb’s Indian Arts in Gallup, New Mexico.  It is signed “Harrison Begay” in its lower right corner and “Haskay Yahne Yah” in its lower left.

Condition: this Original Painting "Medicine Man and Sandpainting" is in original condition

Provenance: from the estate of an Arizona resident who amassed a small collection of Native paintings during the 1960s

Reference: Southwest Indian Painting: a Changing Art by Clara Lee Tanner