Untitled Painting of Two Kneeling Deer Dancers [SOLD]

Michael Kabotie spent his life surrounded by great artists.  His father was Fred Kabotie, who was a very influential painter and a Guggenheim fellow.  During his junior year of high school, Kabotie spent a summer at the University of Arizona’s Southwest Indian Art Project with Fritz Scholder, Helen Hardin, Charles Loloma, and Joe Herrera.  Like his father, Kabotie was multitalented—he was a painter, poet, jeweler, lecturer and silversmith.

In the early 1970s Kabotie founded a collective called the Artist Hopid with artists Michael Kabotie, Terrance Talaswaima, Milland Lomakema, Delbridge Honanie and Neil David, Sr..  Their goal was to breathe new life into traditional Hopi art forms.  Their reinterpretations of traditional forms and designs are, today, highly collectible.  These artists were forward-thinking individuals whose reverence for their culture informed even their more abstract works.

This piece, which was completed in 1970, serves as a fine example of the very beginning of the Artist Hopid movement.  Its subject matter is nothing out of the ordinary for a pueblo painting: a pair of Deer Dancers.  Its composition and execution, however, are truly remarkable.  It is fortunate that Kabotie dated this piece. It serves as both a visual feast and a historically significant document.

The dancers, seen from behind, are kneeling.  Their heads are turned in opposite directions, creating a wonderful bit of symmetry in the painting’s top half.  Below the colorful feathered headdress in the center of the piece, the dancer’s bodies are positioned facing away from the viewer at slightly different angles.  The viewers see the dancer’s backs and the heels of their feet.  They appear to be ready to move at any moment.  Kabotie paid particular attention to their shadows, adding even more texture to an already rich composition.

Kabotie’s thick black, white and gray outlines are sparsely augmented with blue and yellow accents.  These series of lines create wonderful depth and dimension within the dancers’ kneeling frames.   Small bursts of green, blue and red add color to the dancers’ faces and clothing.  Speckles of black and white paint cover the entire piece, becoming thicker in the space surrounding the dancers.

The painting was completed on an art board, which is framed beautifully and mounted with its edges exposed.  It is signed and dated in the lower right.

Condition:  Excellent Condition

Provenance: From a Texas collector

Recommended Reading: Michael’s Journey: The Mythic Art of Michael Kabotie by Brigitte and Dietmar Behnke