During most of her career, Pablita Velarde painted in the very traditional style of the Dorothy Dunn School teachings at the Santa Fe Indian School.  She first painted using casein in early days then developed her unique style of creating her own paints from earth minerals.  There was a period in the late 1960s—perhaps for no more than about three years—that she experimented with more modernist painting styles, perhaps because her daughter Helen Hardin was also delving into modernism.

In this painting, completed three years after Helen Hardin passed away, Velarde combined her traditional painting style of the Dorothy Dunn School with some of the modernist style of her daughter, perhaps in remembrance of Helen.  The dancers are very traditional in presentation.  There is no background or ground plane associated with them, but a background filled with geometric elements and atomized spray in a variety of colors has been added that has no association with the dancers.  This is very much like Helen Hardin would have done.

This combination of painting styles is both a tribute to Pablita Velarde and Helen Hardin and resulted in an outstanding presentation.  This is one of the finest of Velarde's paintings of the decade.  It is signed and dated 1987 in lower right. 

Condition: The painting appears to be in original excellent condition but has not been examined out of the frame.

Provenance: from an Albuquerque couple

Recommended Reading: American Indian Painting by Dorothy Dunn