Original Painting “Untitled—Pueblo Buffalo Dance” [SOLD]

Most artists’ careers have developed as a result of studying or being influenced by other artists. It is accepted that Joe Herrera, son of Tonita Peña, of Cochiti Pueblo was the prime mover in expanding the vocabulary of Indian painting from the restrictive past to a modern future. Hardin’s career had barely begun when Herrera was painting in a modernist style, and she was intensely influenced by him. Hardin did not copy Herrera, but developed a style that was her own.

Hardin explained that she was holding on to the traditional pueblo style of painting while at the same time presenting it in a contemporary manner. That is quite evident in this painting of the pueblo Buffalo Dance. The dance itself and the many presentations of it by pueblo painters are very traditional to pueblo life, but the cubist style of presenting it belongs to Hardin alone. She had not broken away from tradition at this point. It would be another decade before she became totally engrossed in the style for which she became famous.

Hardin, herself, described this period as one where she was interested in design. She would paint the design and then put figures in front of it. Her interest lay in pure design. An early work of Hardin’s, such as this Buffalo Dance, presents a pueblo spiritual subject but in a manner that the viewer need not be familiar with the spirituality, but is drawn to the work as art, not religion. She was very adept at accomplishing this very early in her career.

The painting is in original excellent condition and is beautifully framed.

Provenance: This painting by Hardin dates to around 1970. It was given to her physician in Albuquerque at that time in payment for health services. This was before she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1981.