Navajo (Diné) Yeibichai Night Dance [SOLD]

Andrew Van Tsihnahjinnie was born near Chinle, Arizona, in 1916. He attended elementary school at the Indian School at Fort Apache, but ran away and returned back to the reservation. He then attended school in Santa Fe and became a student of Dorothy Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School. He was an avid student and was known to have stayed in the studio painting until forced to return to the dormitory. Following his graduation he went to work as an illustrator for the Indian Service.

Dorothy Dunn spoke highly of Andrew Van Tsihnahjinnie.  She thought he displayed “incisive interpretation, spontaneity of brushwork, originality of color, vigor of draftsmanship and vitality of action and that he had no equals among the artists of the Santa Fe Indian School studio and perhaps few superiors among modern painters.”  She thought he might well be “one of America’s top-ranking painters. In the brief seasons when he felt freed to paint the things he knew so deeply, without troubled concern for doing otherwise, his work attained a trenchant beauty, unique in modern art.”  Dunn 1963

Andy Tsihnahjinnie’s best work was his portrayal of Navajo life and ceremonies. He is known for his attention to detail in paintings.  This painting is of a Navajo Yeibichai Night Ceremony, one of many night dances held annually.  The male and female couple are blessing the Yei dancers with corn meal as the dancers pass them.  Tsihnahjinnie was well accomplished in providing detail to clothing of all figures.  The male and female attendants are beautifully and traditionally dressed to the utmost detail, as are the Yei impersonators.

This is one of the finest of what we believe to one of Tsihnahjinnie’s later paintings.  As time passed, he progressed from the use of lighter pastel colors to stronger brighter colors as in this painting.  It is signed in lower right but not dated.

Condition:  very good condition.  No noticeable faults.

Reference:  American Indian Painting of the Southwest and Plains Areas by Dorothy Dunn.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery

Provenance: from the estate of a New York resident