Beatien Yazz Original Painting of Man on Horseback with Orange Background [SOLD]

This original painting was completed in 1955 by Diné artist Beatien Yazz. The artist’s work often uses the traditional style as a starting point of sorts.  He would feature detailed figures in profile, and then elaborate on those images by adding natural features or other decorative elements.  It feels like a natural evolution from the works of earlier Diné artists.  This painting, which features an elderly man on horseback, is a fine example of that evolution. It features the traditional profile view of a man on horseback, augmented by a few more personal touches in the environment.

Yazz’ keen eye for detail served him well with this image.  The elderly man was depicted carefully and accurately, with each and every muscle, wrinkle, and lock of long white hair earning the artist’s careful attention.  The horse—looking exhausted, hanging its head low as it trudges across the desert—is similarly detailed.  The personal touches mentioned above exist in the figures’ surroundings.  A semicircle made of thin pointed lines forms a stylish yucca; jagged lines in orange form the earth from which the yucca emerges.  The earth’s tone matches that of the horse, and that tone sits perfectly atop the darker terra cotta orange of the paper.  The man and horse feel somewhat intense, but the warm oranges seem to balance that intensity quite nicely.

The painting is signed Beatian Yazz and dated ‘55 in lower right.  It is framed under a black mat with a gray interior band, in a carved wood frame.

Beatien Yazz (1928-2012) was a Diné artist.  Clara Lee Tanner’s Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art provides a helpful description of his style: “He has adhered basically to casein and tempera, seldom using any other media. His coverage in subject matter has been broad, including many aspects of Navajo daily life, ceremonies, crafts, delightful portrayals of the wildlife of his native land—often with a humorous touch—amusements, and symbolic design… Keen ability is reflected in the versatility of his work developed in variety of painting ranging from notepaper and charming illustrations for children’s books to sophisticated easel painting…” (p. 346)

Condition: excellent condition

Provenance: from the large collection of a Santa Fe resident, who purchased the piece directly from the artist.

References:

- Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art, Clara Lee Tanner 

- The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters, Patrick D. Lester

Relative Links: Navajo Reservation, Spin a Silver Dollar, Paint the Wind, paintings, Beatien Yazz, Navajo Nation Painter