Original Painting of Pueblo Dancer by Popovi Da [SOLD]

Popovi Da (Red Fox) was the son of famous San Ildefonso Pueblo artists Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez. He was born on April 10, 1922 at San Ildefonso Pueblo and died on October 17, 1971 in Santa Fe. He formally and legally changed his name from Tony Martinez to his Pueblo name, Popovi Da. He was educated at the Santa Fe Indian School, where he graduated in 1939. Da was a veteran of the U.S. Army and served in World War II. He lived most of his life at San Ildefonso Pueblo. Da claimed varied occupations: arts and crafts shop owner, Governor of San Ildefonso Pueblo, ceramics painter and designer, silversmith and painter. He was elected Governor of San Ildefonso Pueblo in 1952, and was Chairman of the All-Indian Pueblo Council.

Like his father who painted the designs on Maria's pots, Da most frequently worked with symbolic designs and geometric figures.  After his father's death in 1943, he did little painting. Instead, he assisted his mother with the decoration of her clay forms and developed a two-color firing process that produced the unique black-on-black pottery for which Maria is famous.

A mural by Popovi Da can be seen at Maisel's Indian Trading Post in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His artworks are in the permanent collections of many public institutions across the United States: Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana; Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Denman Collection, United States Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.; National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona; Museum of the Rockies, Browning, Montana; and Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, New Mexico.

We have handled many of Popovi’s artworks over the years—pottery, paintings, jewelry—but have not seen many pieces like this. It’s a single-figure pueblo dancer watercolor, completed in a fashion that, for the most part, adheres to the traditional early pueblo style.  The one notable deviation from the “flat” style is the position in which Popovi’s mountain sheep or ram dancer is pictured. He’s seen in profile, as one would expect, but he turns his head over his shoulder, looking behind and to his left. Popovi was an extraordinarily skilled painter, and he did a wonderful job with this dancer’s atypical arrangement.  The dancer’s unique position effectively suggests to the viewer that he’s alive, in motion, performing an important ceremonial dance. The painting has a real feeling of depth that is not always present in images like this. The dancer’s face and headpiece are highlights. Notable, too, are the sharp outlines and subtle areas of careful shading. Popovi’s color palette—dark, muted grays and blacks, augmented with a small amount of bright red—works well, too.  This is an exceptional painting from a man of a great many talents.

Condition: this Original Painting of Pueblo Dancer by Popovi Da is excellent condition

Provenance: private collection

Recommended Reading: Through Their Eyes—Indian Painting in Santa Fe, 1918-1945 by Michelle McGeough, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, 2009