Original Painting Untitled – Yei holding a fox over the head of a dog [R]

The Navajo believed that Yei spirits could be summoned by masked dancers. During Navajo masque rituals male deities were represented with rounded faces and female deities with rectangular faces. The masked dancers are known as the Yei-Bi-Chi. This painting represents one such dancer holding a fox over the head of a dog. Beatien Yazz often depicted animals in his paintings, and it’s not surprising considering how talented he was at it.

Native painters focus their art on nature, landscapes, horses, clouds and rain, and the abundance of animals and birds. When a youngster grows up on the Navajo Reservation, as did Beatien Yazz, everything he sees and learns reinforces his beliefs in the natural world. There is a strong belief in how important nature is in its effect on the individual.

Beatien Yazz and Harrison Begay outlived their contemporaries and both men painted to near the ends of their lives. They are the two painters that most collectors of today remember and with whom they are familiar because they were alive and painting during most of the 20^th century. Both men left a wonderful legacy of their art behind.

Condition: excellent condition.

Recommended Reading: Yazz, Navajo Painter by J. J. Brody

Provenance: from the collection of a family in Illinois