Untitled Painting of Home Dance Ceremony [SOLD]

Waldo Mootzka (1910-1940) was a painter and silversmith from Hopi Pueblo.  Mootska received no formal art training. He often observed Fred Kabotie painting at Oraibi Day School, and it may have been there that he learned or became interested in watercolor painting.   So, it's not surprising that Mootzka's work displays Kabotie's influence. In the 1930s, John Louw Nelson employed Mootzka, among others, to create paintings for sale that portrayed Indians in everyday life.  Later, in Santa Fe, he was sponsored by Frank Patania, who taught him silversmithing. In 1940, Mootzka was in an automobile accident that exacerbated his tuberculosis, and he died later that year. At the time of his death, Mootzka was devoting almost all his artistic talents to silverwork.  Because of his early death, at the age of only 30 years, and his success as a jeweler, very few paintings by Mootzka are available for collectors to own. 

Clara Lee Tanner commented on Mootzka’s art in Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art: “The paintings of Mootzka combine artistic quality with true recordings of Indian life.  Figures are well drawn, displaying a neat and even fragile quality in outlines. Composition of dance groups is fair.  A neat separateness of line-work may be said to characterize Mootzka’s painting . . . Subject matter treated by Mootzka is quite varied, despite his ever-Hopi emphasis on kachinas, which he presents singly or in groups . . .What he lacked in matters pertaining to background and perspective, Mootska compensated for in color and splendid detail.  Not only did he employ numerous colored papers for the sake of variety, but also he used a full palette. Although pink seems to have been a featured color, it was well handled . . . Mootska seems to have been more experimental, particularly with color. There is a great range in his pictures, in color and tone.”

With this incredible untitled painting, Mootzka presents a depiction of a ceremony that is of the utmost importance to the Hopi people: the Niman (or “Going Home of the Katsina”) ceremony.  This ceremony marks the end of the six-month period during which, according to Hopi tradition, the katsinam live among the Hopi people, revealing themselves through ceremonial dances and serving as the Hopi people’s links to their gods. The katsinam pictured here are Qootsahemis (or “Snow Hemis”) katsinam.  These very rare katsinam last appeared in 1976 at the Home Dance at the village of Hotevilla.

Mootzka’s Home Dance painting is phenomenal.  Seven Snow Hemis, presented with the “splendid detail” mentioned in Tanner’s book, are arranged in a semicircle.  Because of this arrangement, the perspective from which the viewer sees the Katsinam changes slightly for each subject, which must have been challenging.  Mootzka handled the potentially difficult arrangement gracefully. The two Katsinam on the outer edges of the semicircle are seen by the viewer from the side.  The Katsina in the center is seen head-on, giving the viewer a direct look at Mootzka’s fine work with his subject’s masks. Each mask, kilt, sash and evergreen bough is, as one would expect of a Hopi painter, presented accurately and in great detail.  In the center of the semicircle, seen by the viewer from behind, are two Hopi Maidens. The artist used light, shadow, challenging perspectives and a massive palette of strong colors to create an outstanding image. Mootzka’s confidence, skill and ambition are displayed beautifully in this wonderful Hopi painting.

The painting is signed “Mootzka” in its lower right corner.  It is presented in a gold frame underneath black matting.

Condition: this Untitled Painting of Home Dance Ceremony is in excellent condition

Provenance: from a private collection

Recommended Reading: Clara Lee Tanner’s  Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art