Untitled Painting of Pair of Leaping Fawns by Beatien Yazz [SOLD]

In this tranquil painting by well-known Diné painter Beatien Yazz, a pair of fawns leap over a mountainside underneath a pair of birds. The fawns are painted in various rich shades of blue, ranging from light blue around their legs to deep navy around their faces and necks. The two birds above them are also blue, but mostly of a lighter shade, and with accents of pink. Each bird travels in a different direction. The colors add a great depth to the painting set against a white backdrop.

The style of this painting is common in Yazz's work, an endearing scene of animals joyfully playing together and harmonizing with nature. Yazz's love and affection for animals is clear throughout his catalog, but it is particularly highlighted in this scene.

The painting comes in a carved wood frame with two tiers of matting in black and maroon under Tru-Vue glare resistant glass. The painting is signed in the lower right B. Yazz.

Beatien Yazz (1928-2012) Little No Shirt (Jimmy Toddy) was a painter who was born in 1928 on the Navajo Reservation. At an early age, Yazz met Bill and Sallie Lippincott, traders at Wide Ruins Trading Post. They recognized Yazz's talent and made available to him scraps of paper and other equipment so that he might practice his artwork. Alberta Hannum's book Spin a Silver Dollar tells the story of the Lippincotts and the young Navajo boy they encouraged. The book was illustrated by the boy himself—Beatien Yazz. He served in the U.S. Marines in World War II and was a member of the famed Navajo Code Talkers. Following the war, he returned to the reservation and began to paint in earnest. He specialized in subjects familiar to him in his daily life on the reservation. He has been eminently popular with collectors since the 1950s.

Condition: excellent condition

Provenance: this Untitled Painting of Pair of Leaping Fawns by Beatien Yazz is from the collection of a member of the Balcolmb family, former owners of Indian art galleries in New Mexico and Arizona.

Recommended Reading: YAZZ Navajo Painter by J.J. Brody, Sallie R. Wagner, and Beatien Yazz. Published in 1983.

TAGS: Navajo Reservation, Spin a Silver Dollar, Paint the Wind, paintings, Yazz: Navajo Painter