Zia Bird Etching by Helen Hardin of Santa Clara Pueblo [SOLD]

Artist Helen Hardin of Santa Clara Pueblo produced a work of superlative grace, efficacy of line and beautiful range to the limited palette of burnt sienna and burnt umber. In a postmodernist stance, this inventive artist appropriates a cultural symbol most associated with Zia Pueblo, the bird perched atop foliate elements with berry/leaf embellishments. The subtle gradation of tone and delicacy of mark create a most wonderful image of precise linearity and comfortingly warm tonality.

Helen Hardin (1943-1984) Tsa-Sah-Wee-Eh - Little Standing Spruce was one of the most fascinating, complex, and engaging figures in the American Indian art world.  Hardin was born in 1943 to Santa Clara Pueblo painter Pablita Velarde and Caucasian civil servant Herbert Hardin.  Inspired by her mother, she began creating and selling paintings as a teenager.  She went in a different direction than her mother and her mother’s peers, creating more contemporary work that depicted Native American symbols with striking geometrical patterns.

Printers Proof; Framed. Printing Dates: 06/21/80 to 07/18/80.

Printers Proof: An official copy presented by the artist to the printer or printer’s assistant who helped with the process.

Reference: Changing Woman: The Life and Art of Helen Hardin by Jay Scott. 1989. Northland Publishing.