Original Painting of the San Ildefonso Buffalo Dance [SOLD]

This painting was most likely executed before Vigil moved to California in the 1950s to work for Walt Disney Studios.  It is of his earlier style.  It represents the Buffalo Dance at San Ildefonso as sponsored by the Summer Kiva, a dance reportedly not performed by this group in the last 25 years.  In this dance, there are only Buffalo Dancers, unlike the Animal Dances that feature Buffalo, Deer, Antelope and Ram Dancers.  In this dance the female dancers wear the black manta in the Summer Kiva dance whereas they wear the white manta in the Winter Kiva sponsored dances.

This painting is excellent ethnographic documentation on a dance no longer performed at San Ildefonso but was performed when Vigil was living at the pueblo before the 1950s.  It is not likely that other artists of a later generation will ever paint this dance as they have not seen it and are not likely to see it in the future.  Vigil obviously witnessed the dance and documented it well for future generations.

Romando Vigil was one of the San Ildefonso self-taught artists in the early part of the 20th century. He was a leader within the San Ildefonso Watercolor Movement, a movement that caught fire during 1915 to 1917. It fostered an art form unmatched in the cultural history of the world. These men portrayed tribal culture and local wildlife, attaining a flat decorative character, absent of backgrounds and foregrounds, and free of traditional perspective, with an unerring color sense. Their success in these presentations was due to their understanding the ceremonials they painted because they had participated in them since childhood. They understood the meanings of the symbolism they interpreted.

It is believed that Vigil returned to California later in life and was living there when he passed away in 1978.

Recommended Reading: Pueblo Indian Painting: Tradition and Modernism in New Mexico, 1900-1930 by J. J. Brody.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery.

Condition:  appears to be in original condition.  It is framed without matting around its edges.  The colors are extraordinarily rich in tone and do not appear to have faded.

Provenance: from the extensive collection of a resident of Idaho.