Original Painting of a Pueblo Flute Player [SOLD]

Theodore Suina (1918- ) Ku-Pe-Ru - Snow Beads has married prehistory with contemporary history by featuring a contemporary Pueblo flute player superimposed on a cave-like textured background featuring outlined petroglyph-style flute players, a reference to how things have not changed in centuries for the pueblo people.  He painted on a background that appears to be like sandstone which he achieved through spray and spatter which is appropriate for this petroglyph-inspired design.  The appearance is that the Pueblo flute player is playing his flute in front of a wall of petroglyph flute players.  Such paintings garnered awards for the artist.

Suina was born at Cochiti Pueblo in 1918 and is still living.  He survived a broken neck as a youngster by concentrating on painting seriously.  His teachers at the Cochiti Pueblo day school and Geronimo Montoya at the Santa Fe Indian School encouraged him to continue.

In 1939, architect John Gaw Meem commissioned a number of Native artists to paint murals on a building he designed for the Maisel Company in Albuquerque.  Popovi Da, Pablita Velarde and Pop Chalee painted northern Pueblo subjects, while Ben Quintana, Ku-Pe-Ru and Joe H. Herrera did Keres motifs.  Other Indians painted subjects from their tribal affiliation.  Ku-Pe-Ru painted a Corn Dancer.

Dorothy Dunn states "Cochiti themes in both abstract and semi-naturalistic styles are pursued by Ku-Pe-Ru who draws from present-day ceremonials as well as prehistoric motifs on rocks and pottery.

The painting is signed and dated 1961 in lower right.  It is framed without glass.

Condition:  Overall, it is in excellent condition. There is one arched scratch in the background just above the Flute Players head.

Provenance: this Original Painting of a Pueblo Flute Player is from the collection of Katherine H. Rust

Recommended Reading: American Indian Painting of the Southwest and Plains Areas by Dorothy Dunn