Original Painting of a Female Sun Buffalo Dancer [SOLD]

In 1919, the first ever exhibit of Pueblo Indian paintings took place at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe.  Mabel Dodge Lujan, a newly arrived resident of Taos, purchased every painting in the exhibit.  By 1920, Pueblo Indian painting was an established art form and has continued to be so for almost 100 years.  During the 1920s decade, exhibits of Pueblo Indian paintings were held in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and other large cities.

It was at the San Ildefonso Pueblo day school in 1900 that Esther Hoyt, a U. S. Indian Service teacher, distributed paints and paper to her students and encouraged them to paint pueblo ceremonial dances.  Within a decade, these students were selling paintings to the public.  This early start gave the San Ildefonso students an advantage over other pueblo students.  These were the first ones to become recognized as artists and still, today, are considered the most important. 

The San Ildefonso Pueblo students were the first to appear and they have remained the most important of the pueblo painters to date.  The best known of these early painters are Crescencio Martinez (Táe, 1879-1918), Alfonso Roybal (Awa Tsireh, 1898-1955),Abel Sanchez (Oqwa Pi, 1899-1971), Louis (Luis) Gonzales (Wo-Peen, 1907-1990), Julian Martinez (Pocano, 1885-1943), Romando Vigil (Tse Ye Mu, 1902-1978), Richard Martinez (Opa Mu Nu, 1904-1987) and the only female, Tonita Peña (Quah Ah,1893-1949).  Wo-Peen was the youngest of the group.

Luis Gonzales (1907-1990) Wo-Peen - Medicine Mountain labeled this image on verso “Sun Buffalo Dancer (Woman)” and a companion piece “Sun Buffalo Dancer (Man).”  They are both painted on canvas board measuring 13-3/4” x 10” and not framed.  The artist painted the canvas yellow and centered the image.  He signed in lower right.

Condition: very good condition

Provenance:  from the personal collection of a gentleman from Pennsylvania

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