Augustine Bird

The Studio was established in 1932 by Dorothy Dunn. The Studio painting style is characterized by flat, two-dimensional figures on a plain background. Dunn encouraged her students to paint images that reflected their heritage or things with which they were familiar.  

These paintings are important pieces of Native American art history. While artists like Harrison Begay, Pop Chalee and Pablita Velarde went on to be successful artists, there were many who returned to their homes and continued to live and work unknown to the artistic community.  

A student named Augustine Bird from Kewa – Santo Domingo Pueblo was one of the unknown artists.  According to Diane Bird, Archivist at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, Augustine Bird was her uncle and she stated that he did not continue painting as a career after leaving the Indian School.  His career was as a house painter.