Helen Hardin Etching PAIR “Spirit of Autumn and Spring”

Santa Clara Pueblo artist Helen Hardin created this lovely and fantastically rare SET in both etching and aquatinting. The SET was printed in benzine yellow ochre, English red, midnight blue, burnt umber, and sepia. These provide a pairing of spirits, the cool of Autumn and the verdant energy of Spring, worked in delicate fine-line, hatching, graphic contour, and bold geometric rendering over a free-form gestural background.

The etchings were issued in an edition of 65 copies.  Each of these is #49/65.  Each is signed at right, Tsa-sah-wee-eh with the artist's cartouche, and initials HH below the signature.  At lower left is the house chop, at lower right is the printer’s chop, and the printer’s blind stamp is on verso.

The printing was begun on 25 March 1983 and completed on 28 September 1983.  These two were next to the last etchings made by Helen Hardin (1943-1984) Tsa-Sah-Wee-Eh - Little Standing Spruce before she passed away.  Only “Unity of Prayers and Song” was printed after this pair.  Master printers were Ricardo C. Ximenes, Catherine Clinger, Yvette Tapp.

Each etching is double matted with matching mats, and each is framed in matching brown wood frames.

Image Source of Helen Hardin: the scanned images of original polaroids appear here, courtesy of the photographer.

Condition: appear to be in original condition

Provenance: this Helen Hardin Etching PAIR "Spirit of Autumn and Spring" is from the estate of a former Colorado client 

Recommended Reading: Changing Woman: The Life and Art of Helen Hardin by Jay Scott

TAGS: Santa Clara Pueblo, Pablita Velarde, Native American Prints, Native American Paintings, Helen Hardin