Original Painting of a Male Sun Buffalo Dancer [SOLD]

What had been an art form exclusively for ceremonial and secular life at San Ildefonso Pueblo prior to 1900 became an art form for the public.   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.

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 (Man)” and labeled a companion piece “Sun Buffalo Dancer (Woman).”  They are both painted on canvas-covered 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