Museum Collection Fund

Museum Collection Fund

Museum Collection Fund

Watercolor of two women sitting on a rug hold pottery. Oqwa Pi (Abel Sanchez) was one of several promising painters who learned the basics for mural painting and watercolor at the Santa Fe Indian School. Moving back to San Ildefonso Pueblo, he led an active life as a religious leader and statesman, holding the Tribal Governor position for six terms. In addition to raising his large family through his farming and fulfilling his extensive community obligations, he maintained a lucrative artistic career, fitting in painting between feast days and using his dining room as a studio. His work features scenes of secular ceremonies and of his community daily life. The San Ildefonso Pueblo walls, unlike many other Pueblos, did not have murals in their kivas. So the influences came from paintings found at Frijoles Canyon where figures were painted on an undecorated ground, often also found on ceramics. Thus the only grounding in this work is the women on top of the rug although the rug appears to be floating. The traditionally dressed figures appear to interact more with the viewer of than with each other. However the accuracy of the clothing, pottery styles and rug designs are accurately depicted.

Pictorial document on one single, large sheet of amate paper (composed of about 17 pieces that have been adhered together). There are 12 Nahuatl inscriptions in light black ink, oriented in various directions. The place name San Pedro Atlapolco occurs several times, which is why the document is believed to have originated in that community, and to record the foundation of its church. The drawing of ink and watercolor depicts a church under construction in the center of the community. Native men dressed in loose tunics, belted at the waist, carry loads of construction materials toward the building site. In front of the building, a friar is seated at a table with a pen and several pages of writing. Behind him, native nobles gesture in support, and in front native women kneel and form the audience. This document is part of the Techialoyan corpus, a group of pictorial documents produced by and for native communities in the State and Valley of Mexico, in the 18th century (see Diana Fane, ed., Converging Cultures: Art and Identity in Spanish America, New York: Brooklyn Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, 1996, p. 82-3).

"Fall Corn Dance" is an opaque watercolor over graphite drawing on a textured wove paper. The artist's signature, "Mootzka", is located at the bottom right corner of the image in black watercolor. The media is generally in good condition but there is some cracking in the dark blue skirts, the yellow stripes of the flag, the green in the feather headdresses, and in most of the red areas. There is also cracking in the brown drum and belt of the figure in pink. An previous acidic mat caused an orange-brown mat burn around the image.

Also known as Lewis Lomay.(1913-1996) Native American watercolor painting, depicting scenes from everyday life and ceremonial dances, arose in the 1920s, stimulated by growing interest among white patrons. Drawing from a long tradition of painted hides, pottery, and wall murals, artists incorporated native painting styles with the European-derived medium of watercolor to create a new Native American art form. At the heart of this movement were various self-taught artists from the southwestern United States, particularly from Hopi and Pueblo cultures. In 1930 the Brooklyn Museum was one of the first museums in the country to feature an exhibition of watercolors by Native American painters from the Southwest. Here Louis Lomayesva (b. 1913) depicts the dancers and drummers of the Hopi Corn Dance. Representing life , corn is the most important symbol for the Hopi. Like many of his contemporary Native American watercolor artists watercolorists, Lomayesva omitted the background in his images , thereby emphasizing the figures while adding a timeless quality. At the same time, his paintings mirror reality, as seen in the fine details of the woven designs on the dancers' shawls and belts.

Watercolor painting of a Pueblo dancer about to climb a ladder leaning against a kiva. Awa Tsireh is also called Alfonso Roybal.