Special Value Offer: Santa Clara Pueblo Painting of a Ram Dancer [SOLD]

Special Value Offer: This is being offered at a 25 % price reduction from $995 to $745

Geraldine Gutiérrez's mother, Helen Atencio, was from San Ildefonso Pueblo and her father, Frank Gutierrez, from Santa Clara Pueblo. Although she technically belongs to her mother’s pueblo, she makes her residence at Santa Clara and produces blackware pottery as well as paintings. Her paintings are certainly influenced by the work of her uncle, Gilbert Atencio of San Ildefonso Pueblo.

Geraldine carries on in the traditional manner of San Ildefonso Pueblo painting. Dance figures are her favorite theme, and generally they are drawn without any ground lines. Her colors are so intense they look as though they came directly from the paint tubes. They are delicate in value, consistently neat, outlines tend to be fine, and there is much delicate modeling and shading.

Religion is an integral part of Native life and it is incorporated into everyday activities, unlike other religions that are practiced only once a week. The Indians innate ability to sense the harmony of nature and to perceive its beauty as a religious phenomenon that pervades all phases of daily life is often portrayed in their art, as in this painting where Geraldine portrays a Pueblo Ram Dancer with sticks in his hands simulating the front legs of the animal.  This painting was completed when the artist was only 15 years of age. The perspective is accurate and the detail is well rendered. The face of the dancer is remarkably well drawn.

Condition: appears to be in original condition

Provenance: from the personal collection of a resident of Albuquerque