Original Painting of Varied Subject [SOLD]

As a child, P'otsúnú was taken from her native pueblo and sent to the Santa Fe Indian School, as was the routine for all Pueblo Indian students of the time. The irony is that she hated the place at first; running away from the legacy that she would help develop. Like many early students of the Santa Fe Indian School (SFIS), she resented being taken from her pueblo to the boarding school, but the tutelage of Dorothy Dunn, founder of the famous "Studio" fostered in the young girl a love of art that remains to this day. Montoya would succeed Dunn as the director of the arts program at SFIS, and oversee it for the next quarter century, before leaving to start the San Juan Crafts Co-Op. She retired in 1973 to focus on her art.

This painting is a rather unusual one for the artist, Gerónima Cruz Montoya (1915 – present) P’otsúnú from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo (formerly San Juan Pueblo)..  It is a mixture of items, all consolidated under an arch.  There is a rabbit, a dragonfly, and a flower enclosed within a white zigzag and curved line.  There are geometrical elements enclosed in a zigzag and curved turquoise line.  Stars, represented by yellow plus signs float beyond the borders of the lines.  The painting is signed P’otsúnú and Dated ’79 in lower right.

Condition: appears to be in original condition
Provenance: from the collection of a Santa Fe family
Recommended Reading: "The Worlds of P´otsúnú: Geronima Cruz Montoya of San Juan Pueblo" by Jeanne Shutes and Jill Mellic