Untitled Painting of a Zuni Kachina Dance [SOLD]

Percy Tsisete Sandy (1918-1974) Kai-Sa - Red Moon was born at Zuni Pueblo in 1918. He later moved from Zuni to Taos, due to internal conflicts connected to his depiction of sensitive religious subjects. He died in Taos in 1974.  Kai-Sa attended elementary and secondary schools of the village of Zuni, then went on to Santa Fe to take a year’s postgraduate work in art at the Santa Fe Indian School. Kai-Sa was surely influenced while at the Indian School in Santa Fe, whether by artists he encountered there or by paintings he saw there.  Navajo (Diné) influence is seen in some of his paintings, influence of Taos artist Pop Chalee is evident in at least one of his paintings. He has used Hopi and Rio Grande Puebloan styles as well as Navajo (Diné) and Apache.

Kai-Sai was influenced by artists from a wide variety of cultures, and so his style cannot be ascribed to any one culture.  Here, we see a work that mostly fits within the categorization of a traditional Pueblo “flat style” painting. The majority of its Zuni Kachinas and both of its Mudheads are depicted mid-stride and in profile, as was the norm with traditional Pueblo paintings.  Kai-Sa took creative liberty with his dancer’s surroundings, adding a rocky hill with patches of grass where there would normally be no ground plane. His color palette is notably wide and diverse, and his subjects are depicted in impressive detail. The dancer on the far right is, fortunately for the viewer, unmasked.  Kai-Sa’s subject’s faces are always depicted gracefully and beautifully, and the one featured here is no exception.

The painting is signed, simply “Kai-Sa”, in its lower right corner.

Condition: this Untitled Painting of a Zuni Kachina Dance is in excellent condition

Provenance: From an Albuquerque collector

Recommended Reading:  Southwest Indian Painting: a changing art by Clara Lee Tanner