Native American Painting - The Chief Going to Fiesta [SOLD]

Awa Tsireh chose to entitle this painting himself by writing the title on verso along with his signature.  He titled it The Chief Going to Fiesta.  He placed the chief on a beautiful solid black horse which stands out proudly against the white paper background.  The chief is clothed in traditional cotton pueblo trousers with a split at the legs’ ends.  The trousers just slightly cover the high-top moccasins studded with silver buttons.  His shirt is a cotton print fabric with a pattern of four-leaf clovers.  The chief has his hair tied in a chongo (male version of chonga) and wears a green headband.  Behind him is a rolled blanket.  The saddle rests on a Navajo-made saddle blanket.  There are no other items in the painting other than this main attraction.

Alfonso Roybal (1898-1955) Awa Tsireh was painting before 1917. He was the oldest of the early group of pueblo painters. His formal education had not extended beyond primary grades. He was a student at the San Ildefonso Pueblo day school under the tutelage of Esther Hoyt, a U. S. Indian Service teacher.  She encouraged her students to paint subjects with which they were familiar, such as pueblo dance ceremonies and daily scenes.  These encouragements produced a generation of artists from San Ildefonso.

Awa Tsireh was early recognized beyond his native world as an outstanding Indian artist. His watercolors were sent by Alice Corbin Henderson to the Arts Club of Chicago for a special exhibit in 1920. His paintings appeared in early exhibits in Santa Fe, and he was among the several artists to receive prizes at the first Santa Fe Indian Market. In 1925, the Chicago papers were generous in their acclaim for his exhibit in the Newberry Library. The Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts in New York in 1931 included Awa Tsireh paintings.

The Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, is scheduling an exhibit of paintings by Awa Tsireh for 2018.  Such an exhibit will bring national attention to this already famous San Ildefonso artist. 

The painting is signed in lower right with a signature that combines the two names Awa Tsireh into a single name Awatsireh.  Perhaps this is an early signature.

Condition: this Native American Painting - The Chief Going to Fiesta is in very good condition with what appears to be a few drops of light brown paint or perhaps a stain in upper left and mid-right.

Recommended Reading: Pueblo Indian Painting: Tradition and Modernism in New Mexico, 1900-1930 by J. J. Brody, et al