Original Painting Titled “Yeibichai: Patients Being Blessed, Cornmeal” [SOLD]

Beatien Yazz "Little No Shirt" (or Jimmy Toddy) was an influential Diné painter. Born in 1928 on the Navajo Reservation, Yazz showed promise as an artist very early. At an early age, Yazz met the Lippencotts, traders at Wide Ruins Trading Post. They made available to him scraps of paper and other equipment so that he might practice in color. He served in the U.S. Marines in World War II and was a member of the famed Navajo Code Talkers. Following the war, he returned to the reservation and began to paint in earnest. He specialized in subjects familiar to him in his daily life on the reservation. He has been eminently popular with collectors since the 1950s.

Jimmy Toddy's place in the history of Navajo art is well accepted. He is regarded as one of the most important painters of Navajo life and culture of the 20th century. He has been known as Bea etin Yazz (Bea means shirt and etin is none, therefore Little No Shirt), a nickname given him as a young boy; and Jimmy Toddy, a name assigned to him by a school teacher and derived from a nickname in Navajo by which his father or grandfather was known. His real name, in accordance with Navajo culture, remains unknown as a Navajo's proper name is not divulged. The majority of his paintings are signed with the name "B Yazz".

This portrayal of a Diné ceremonial function features five figures: three Yeibichai dancers and two female participants. Each is elaborately and accurately adorned, as one would expect of a Native American artist's depiction of one of their own peoples' rituals. They're in motion and seen by the viewer in profile, save for one dancer who is seen from behind. The compositional arrangement of the dancers-four of them in line, standing up straight, with one Yeibichai seperated and crouching-is pleasing. Yazz's sizable palette of bright colors adds to the already vibrant proceedings.

The painting is completed in the traditional "flat" style which was practiced by Santa Fe Indian School students. After the war, Yazz and his contemporaries were part of a movement that sought to elaborate on this style. The majority of his images include background work of some sort-geographical features, plants, clouds, and trees. This piece proves that Yazz could produce exciting works even when working within the confines of the traditional style.

The painting is signed in its lower right corner.

Condition: this Original Painting Titled "Yeibichai: Patients Being Blessed, Cornmeal" is in excellent condition

Provenance: from the estate of Frances Balcomb, passed through a daughter

Recommended Reading: Yazz: Navajo Painter by J. J. Brody, et al.

Note: when we say Diné, as opposed to Navaho or Navajo, we are referring to the people and not the government.  Since 1969, their government refers to itself as the Navajo Nation.