Three-Dimensional Mixed Media Depiction of Mask

This original mixed media depiction of a masked face was made by Tesuque Pueblo artist Patrick Swazo Hinds. It was completed on canvas using paint, sand, feathers, and some sort of round object, which rises off the canvas to form the three-dimensional mask. Feathers protrude from the top of the mask, reaching up to the bottom of the frame.

Thick, coarse sand covers the entirety of the canvas and mask, further enriching the texture and enhancing the depth of the image. Swazo's palette of black, red, and white paints is simple but strong, highlighting the mask in a dramatic manner while allowing the additional elements ample space in which to shine. The composition is striking. This is one of the best and most unique works we've seen from Patrick Swazo Hinds.

The painting is signed Swazo in lower right. The canvas is mounted in a two-tiered black frame, which is painted white and black to match the painting.

Patrick Swazo Hinds (1929-1974) Grey Squirrel neither painted in the two-dimensional style of The Studio of the Santa Fe Indian School nor in the abstract style of Fritz Scholder and other Institute of American Indian Arts students. Rather, he had his own style, which was a mixture of realism and modernism. Swazo became a full-time painter after 1968, but most of his paintings are not dated. He died in 1974, so it can be assumed that most of his art was produced in the 6 years between 1968 and 1974. Clara Lee Tanner's Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art features Swazo's work on its cover and names the artist "one of the most outstanding of all the pueblo artists."

Condition: excellent condition

Provenance: this Three-Dimensional Mixed Media Depiction of Mask is from a private Santa Fe collection

Reference: Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art, Clara Lee Tanner

TAGS: NATIVE AMERICAN PAINTINGS, TESUQUE PUEBLO, PRINTS, Patrick Swazo Hinds