"Hopi Butterfly Dance" 1970 by Neil David, Sr.

This is an original mixed media painting by Neil David, Sr. (1944- ). The artwork depicts the traditional Hopi Butterfly Dance, a social, non-sacred dance held in late summer/early autumn by Hopi and Hopi-Tewa villages to celebrate the harvest, pray for rain, and promote good health and prosperity.

The dance features paired young men and women. The young women wear a bundle of beautiful parrot feathers in their hair. They wear traditional embroidered mantas with brightly colored sashes. On their backs they wear sun shields. The male dancers wear embroidered kilts, rain sashes, dance rattles, and feathers in their hair, moving in rhythm alongside their partners.

Neil David's signature attention to ethnographically precise detail is on full display here — from the textile patterns to the ceremonial foot positions and delicate linework. Created in 1970, this piece dates to a pivotal early era in David's career. Shortly after returning from military service in 1968, he began painting full-time. Just two years after this piece was made, David co-founded Artist Hopid — the celebrated collective of Hopi artists including Terrance Talaswaima, Milland Lomakema, Michael Kabotie, and Delbridge Honanie dedicated to documenting and preserving Hopi culture through fine art. This painting is signed N David '70 Tewa-Hopi in the bottom right corner.

Condition: very good condition.

Provenance: Displayed in the special exhibit Ancestral Symbols, Modern Masterpieces: Documenting the Sacred Narratives and History of the Hopi People at Adobe Gallery for its 50^th Anniversary Landmark Exhibition in Santa Fe, NM, May - October 2026. This painting by Neil David, Sr. "Hopi Butterfly Dance" 1970 is from the collection of a family from Arizona.

Recommended Reading: Hopi Painting: the World of the Hopis by Patricia Janis Broder.

TAGS: Hopi Pueblo, Michael Kabotie, Terrance Talaswaima, Neil David, Sr., Native American Painting, Milland Lomakema