Santa Clara Pueblo Aquatint Etching titled Playtime by Camilio Tafoya [SOLD]

One thinks of Camilio Tafoya as the brother of Santa Clara Pueblo matriarch Margaret Tafoya, a farmer, and a potter, but there was at least one instance when he made an aquatint etching.  El Cerro Graphics of Los Lunas, New Mexico, is best known for producing the outstanding etchings of Helen Hardin, but it also produced those by a number of others, as well.  Camilio was one of those “others”.

In 1981, Camilio produced this charming aquatint etching of leaping frogs which he titled “Playtime.”  There are four frogs, three desert pocket mice— two of which are sitting on mushrooms— and a single snake.  There are several line drawings of plants, one of which is hosting a bee. A portion of a large bright sun hovers in the upper corner.

A total of 60 copies were made, and this is number 24 of the total.  It is signed, in pencil, Camilio Sunflower Tafoya in the lower right of the image.  I know of no other etching that Camilio produced, so, perhaps this is unique if it is the only one.

Camilio Tafoya is listed in Snodgrass' book on Indian artists with notations that he is included in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., and was represented in an exhibit at the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, NM.  There is no mention in the book as to what type of his work is represented in the collection or what was exhibited at the Wheelwright. Since Snodgrass’ book is a biographical directory of American Indian painters, it is to assume that he was a painter.

The paper is floated on a matching cream background to expose the entire etching.  A spacer is inserted between the paper and glass to prevent the glass resting on the etching.

Condition: original condition

Provenance: this Santa Clara Pueblo Aquatint Etching titled Playtime by Camilio Tafoya is from the collection of a gentleman from Santa Fe

Reference: Snodgrass, Jeanne O. American Indian Painters - A Biographical Directory, 1968.