WOMAN SERIES Etchings by Helen Hardin—Changing Woman, Medicine Woman, Listening Woman [SOLD]

Among the strongest and most sought-after work by Santa Clara Pueblo artist Helen Hardin is a series of three exceptional aquatint etchings. “Changing Woman,” “Medicine Woman” and “Listening Woman” comprise what is commonly referred to as Hardin’s WOMAN SERIES.  Hardin, the daughter of influential Santa Clara Pueblo artist Pablita Velarde, was primarily known as a painter. In 1979, art dealer Sue Di Maio began encouraging Hardin to explore printmaking. Hardin’s contemporaries—Fritz Scholder and R.C. Gorman, most notably—had been creating lithographs successfully for years, but she believed these artists’ prints to be inferior to their paintings.  She was not excited about the possibility of exploring printmaking.

Hardin begrudgingly attended a meeting with Richard Ximenez, master printer and operator of El Cerro Graphics in Los Lunas, New Mexico.  After a lengthy meeting regarding technical details and the receipt of a persuasive follow-up letter, Hardin agreed to go to work with Ximenes.  She found herself to be well-suited to the medium and, after her earliest efforts were successes, began to enjoy it. She created and released 23 etchings in total, all during the last four years of her life.

We are very pleased to offer all three of the WOMAN SERIES etchings together.  “Changing Woman” was the first of the three etchings. Jay Scott’s Changing Woman: The Life and Art of Helen Hardin provides an excellent description of the significance of the image: “...Hardin had achieved a great synthesis, a powerful self-portrait: the artist as young woman and ageless kachina. The geometry that sometimes dominated her work was now utterly subservient to an underlying emotion. But what emotion? ‘Changing Woman’ is an ambivalent woman, a woman in dissonant flux, a woman whose internal movements have been externalized by all those irregular, collapsing rectangles...The image is not only or even a portrait of a woman, it is a blueprint of identity, and of identity seen as a product of mercurial and perhaps uncontrollable psychic processes forever in transition.”  Hardin was so pleased with the image that she recreated it as an identically titled painting, before deciding to create a series of similarly-themed etchings.

A year later, Hardin created “Medicine Woman.”  The four-color etching was inspired in part by a previously completed Kachina painting.  During its creation, Hardin was diagnosed with breast cancer and a mastectomy was ordered. “It was almost as if I needed that person, that healing spirit,” Hardin said. “After I found out I had cancer, and we were doing the print at El Cerro, I felt I had her spirit with me.”  Another year later, in 1982, Hardin completed “Listening Woman”—”the woman I am only becoming now. She’s the speaker, she’s the person who’s more objective, the listener and the compassionate person” (Scott 138-143).

Jay Scott described the images adeptly: “...they are icons of the constancy of change, the timelessness of grief and the virtue of endurance. They are hymns to stoicism. The colors in all three—muted ochre, mustard, burnt umber, faded tangerine, bleached turquoise and charcoal—are masterfully orchestrated and harmonized; the emphasis is not on surfaces, but on interiors and essences.”

It was during the creation of “Listening Woman” that Hardin learned that her cancer had metastasized.  She was feeling fine at the time, but her worsening illness required chemotherapy and radiation treatments.  A fourth “Woman” series etching, tentatively titled “Creative Woman,” was planned but never executed. Hardin was intermittently productive during these last few years, working whenever she was physically able.  She created three more etchings and many paintings, some of which are regarded as masterpieces. Hardin passed away at home on June 9, 1984.

Hardin’s WOMAN SERIES etchings have come to be regarded as some of the artist’s strongest and most significant works.  Without context or knowledge of the artist’s life and career, these are striking, brilliantly composed images made of gorgeous, richly textured colors.  Each of these etchings, individually, is a major creative accomplishment. Together, they are astounding, and knowing the story behind their creation elevates the viewing experience significantly.  One of Hardin’s greatest strengths was her ability to create images that are both deeply personal and in some way representative of a larger Native cultural identity. With these particular pieces she walks this line most effectively, merging her own rapidly-changing physical and spiritual beings with those of the ancestral kachinas.  These spiritual self-portraits represent Hardin’s maturity, wisdom, and resilience in the face of adversity, providing the viewer with a deep, thought-provoking exploration of the fluid nature of personal identity.

“Listening Woman” is an artist proof.
“Changing Woman” is number 55 of 65.
“Medicine Woman” is number 11 of 65.

Each etching is signed, numbered, and marked with the chop marks of the printer and print shop.  Copies of the original print records, which detail printing techniques and materials, are included with each etching.

Provenance: “Listening Woman” comes from the collection of Sue Di Maio, the dealer who encouraged Hardin to explore printmaking. “Changing Woman” and “Medicine Woman” come from other private collectors.

Condition: “Listening Woman” has minor spotting around the top edge, outside of the etched area. A professional paper conservator has treated the spots and confirmed that there is no threat to the integrity of the paper. “Changing Woman” is in excellent condition, with minor abrasions at the edges of the paper. “Medicine Woman” has few barely noticeable discolorations outside of the etched area.  Overall, the set of etchings is in very good condition.

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

Relative Links: Santa Clara Pueblo, Pablita Velarde, Native American Prints, Helen Hardin