Adobe Gallery Blog
Cochiti Pueblo Male Basket Dancer Painting by Tonita Peña - C3918D
This painting is titled Basket Dance on verso and it features a single male dancer. The Basket Dance is performed by the Winter People at San Ildefonso around Easter time. This appears to be a later painting by Tonita Vigil Peña (1893-1949) Quah Ah as determined by her signature with the cartouche of a pottery design. By indicating this to be a later painting, we mean 1930s to mid-1940s, as she passed away in 1949.
Tonita was an exceptional painter. She was the only female painter amongst a group of men painters. She well illustrated that she was as competent a painter as any of the men. She has been praised for her fine detail and the expertly rendered faces she painted. Her attention to detail is easily demonstrated when looking at the evergreen neck ruff and the branch held in his hand.
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