Adobe Gallery Blog
Original Painting Entitled Swallow Dancer by Po-qui-Tsireh - 25937
Identity of early 20th-century Native artists is not always documented in the standard reference books but sometime can be uncovered in more unusual places. There is no mention of Tomacito Vigil (c.1923-) Po-qui-Tsireh in any of the published books on Native artists that we have consulted, however, his name appears in a PhD Dissertation to the University of Texas, Austin, in 2011. It is simply a line entry with his name and that he attended the Santa Fe Indian School in 1936-37.
The Original Painting Entitled Swallow Dancer is marked on verso: "Swallow Dancer" by Tomacito Vigil, age 13, San Ildefonso Pueblo. It is signed in center right on the front Po-qui-Tsireh, his Tewa name. It is a single figure dancer with no background design, in typical fashion of The Studio of the Santa Fe Indian School. The dancer has a large green ruff around his neck, black body paint, white kilt with a fox tail, black stockings, and white moccasins.