Original Pastel of Two Buffalo Dancers [SOLD]

C3876C-paint.jpg

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Tommy Edward Montoya, Ohkay Owingeh Painter
  • Category: Paintings
  • Origin: Ohkay Owingeh, San Juan Pueblo
  • Medium: pastel on paper
  • Size: 14” x 18” image; 17-1/4” x 21-1/4” framed
  • Item # C3876C
  • SOLD

Adobe Gallery Albuquerque featured the works of Tommy Edward Montoya (1952-2009) Than Ts'áy Tas for a number of years.  He was a close friend and his pastel drawings were unique compared to less abstract paintings normally exhibited at the gallery, a reason I liked his work and looked forward to having him drop in and bring some to us on occasion. 

 

Artist Signature - Tommy Edward Montoya (1952-2009) Than Ts'áy TasI watched him work with pastels and was amazed at how easily he visualized what he wanted to do and how well he executed his thoughts.  He was a fine artist and I know of no other pueblo artist producing works of his style except, perhaps, Dan Namingha of Hopi.

 

Montoya worked in pure pastel colors which classifies his work as drawings, not paintings.  The pastel colors are in stick form and can be used like working a piece of chalk.  He was very adept at using pastel colors.   

 

This pastel drawing of two Ohkay Owingeh Buffalo Dancers is a display of a multitude of colors and vibrant activity by the dancers.  One can visualize the sound of the tin cones on the edge of the kilts as the dancers raise and lower their legs.  The sound simulates thunder as do the rattles in their hands. Pastel pigments are very difficult with which to work as intensity of color and definition depend on the artist applying the correct pressure of the pastel stick during application.  Montoya was an expert with pastel pigments and that was his choice of medium

 

Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo is the largest, most northerly, and the most geographically isolated of the six Tewa villages. It was where the Spanish selected as their first capital when they arrived in the late 1500s.  Six months later, they moved their capital to Santa Fe.  San Juan, as it was christened by the Spaniards, is known as one of the pueblos where ritual and political matters continue to be strictly observed. Living and working in this environment, Montoya developed two independent sides of his art: figurative studies of traditional Tewa ritual; and his more cerebral, purely abstract studies of color and form. His popular figurative works, such as this one, brim with vitality and action. His strong asymmetric compositions come to life as if one were witnessing the pueblo rather than viewing a piece of art.

 

Since the artist used the entire paper for this work, we have framed it by floating the paper on black background so that the full image is exposed and nothing covered with mats.

 

Condition: original condition

Provenance: from the estate of a client from New York

Recommended Reading100 Artists of the Southwest by Douglas Bullis

Close up view of this painting.

Tommy Edward Montoya, Ohkay Owingeh Painter
  • Category: Paintings
  • Origin: Ohkay Owingeh, San Juan Pueblo
  • Medium: pastel on paper
  • Size: 14” x 18” image; 17-1/4” x 21-1/4” framed
  • Item # C3876C
  • SOLD

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