Original Painting of a Pair of Zuni Shalako [SOLD]

One of the most popular annual Katsina presentations is the Shalako Ceremony at Zuni Pueblo.  Many people attend the ceremony in late November or early December and stand outside in the dark night in very cold weather but the experience is worth the discomfort.  Many Indians from other tribes and many whites from all over the United States attend.  Because of having attended the ceremony once or more often, artists from other pueblos as well as artists of the Navajo Nation choose to paint parts of the ceremony to express their pleasure with having participated.

Romando Vigil (1902-1978) Tse Ye Mu - Falling Cloud must have attended Shalako on one or more occasions and painted this reminder of his visit.  He presented two of the ten-foot tall Shalako from memory as neither sketching nor photographing during the ceremony is permitted. 

The painting is signed in lower right, is triple matted and framed in a beautiful carved wood frame.

Condition: original condition

Recommended Reading: American Indian Painting of the Southwest and Plains Areas by Dorothy Dunn (1903-1992)

Provenance: from the collection of a New Mexico artist