Sacred Fire Dancer by Allan Hauser [SOLD]

MASTERPIECES OF PRIMITIVE AMERICAN ART is a series of silkscreen prints by famous Santa Fe artist Louie H. Ewing.  During and shortly after World War II, the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, New Mexico, retained famous Santa Fe silkscreen artist Louie Ewing to execute prints of masterpieces of local art.  These silkscreen prints were made in an edition of 500 copies exclusively for members of the Laboratory of Anthropology.  They were not released for sale.  This screen print is one of six images in the first set to be issued.

This silkscreen print is of an Allan Houser painting of an Apache Fire Dancer.  It was issued in a portfolio cover on which is a description by Margretta Stewart Dietrich, as follows:

“Allan Hauser, who painted the Indian dancer reproduced here, proudly claims to be a grandson of Geronimo, of the Chiricahua band of Apaches which defied the United States army until 1889—the last Indians to be subdued.  But it is an Indian clan relationship rather than an actual blood relationship.  Geronimo probably was his granduncle on the maternal side.  Part of Allan’s boyhood was spent in Oklahoma and part on the Mescalero Apache reservation in southern New Mexico.  He attended the Santa Fe Indian School and worked in its art studio, graduating in 1937.

“The single figure presented here is one of a group of four or five masked dancers who perform at night during the annual ceremony in honor of the girls among the Mescaleros who have reached marriageable age.  The San Carlos Apaches of Arizona in a similar ceremony have even more elaborate costuming.  The dance is a favorite subject with all Apache artists.  By Whites it is sometimes called the Devil Dance, sometimes the Crown Dance.  Hauser calls his picture The Sacred Fire Dancer.

“These masked dancers impersonate the Supernaturals, the Mountain Spirits.  When he first comes to the fire, each performer dances according to his individual feelings, competing for the approval of the spectators.  There follows a period of posturing rather than dancing—the bodies rigid, the movements angular.  The most exhausting and difficult part concludes the performance; their backs to the fire, the dancers circle it in a half-squatting position, throwing first one leg, then the other, forward and upward.  The dancers may not speak but from time to time utter an unearthly low ‘Hoo-hoo-hoo.’ The dance is accompanied by singing and rhythmic beating with a curved stick on a stretched raw-hide and on improvised drums.”

Condition: this Sacred Fire Dancer by Allan Hauser is in original condition

Provenance: from a family in Santa Fe