Wood Carving of Diné Man by Charlie Willeto [SOLD]

This wood folk art carving was created by Diné medicine man-turned-artist Charlie Willeto.  Those who are familiar with Willeto’s work will notice that this particular piece is smaller in scale, but it’s no less impressive than the artist’s larger works.  This piece is a depiction of a Diné man wearing a necklace and concho belt. Just three colors were used—black, red and white. It’s simple, beautiful, and charming, which is exactly what we expect of a Willeto carving.  A similar piece was pictured on the cover of American Indian Art Magazine’s Spring 2010 issue.  That piece, which belongs to the Girard Foundation Collection, is dated circa ‘61.  This piece is so similar to that one that we assume it to have been made around the same time.

We will include with the carving the aforementioned issue of American Indian Art Magazine, as well as a copy of Collective Willeto: The Visionary Carvings of a Navajo Artist.

Charlie Willeto (1897-1964) was a Diné artist who was unrecognized during his lifetime but has, in recent years, received a great deal of acclaim for his folk art carvings.  Willeto’s father, Pablo Walito, was a Diné medicine man; his mother Adzaan Tsosie “Slender Woman” was a medicine woman. Willeto himself followed into his parents’ profession, and also married a woman who was born into the traditional Diné healing arts.  At the time of Charlie and Elizabeth’s arranged marriage, he was almost fifty and she was 18. They would go on to have six children together, many of whom would become artists themselves. Willeto was a Yei-bi-chei dancer, and his earliest known carvings were what he referred to as “replicas” of the Yei-bi-cheis.  His elders discouraged him from continuing to make his “replicas”, and he moved in a different but similarly controversial direction.

In 1961, Willeto began creating the carvings for which he is celebrated today.  These works—his early pieces, in particular—bore a resemblance to the “illness” or “healing” dolls made for use in Diné ceremonial functions. They always featured some sort of deliberate aberration, though, as the recreation of these dolls was frowned upon by the Diné.  Humans, anthropomorphic figures and all manner of animals were Willeto’s preferred subjects. He painted his carvings with house paint, chalk, crayons, and his wife’s weaving dyes. The carvings ranged in size from a few inches tall to nearly life-size, with the majority standing between one and three feet.  Willeto bartered his carvings for provisions, with trader Jim Mauzy. Mauzy then sold and traded Willeto’s carvings to other dealers and collectors. Willeto is believed to have completed about 400 carvings in total. Today, his works are included in many prominent public and private collections, including the Smithsonian and the Museum of International Folk Art.

Note: when we say Diné, as opposed to Navaho or Navajo, we are referring to the people and not the government.  Since 1969, their government refers to itself as the Navajo Nation.  

Condition: this Wood Carving of Diné Man by Charlie Willeto is in excellent condition

Provenance: from the private collection of a Pennsylvania resident

Recommended Reading: Collective Willeto: The Visionary Carvings of a Navajo Artist, Museum of New Mexico Press

Relative Links: Navajo Nation - Diné, Charlie Willeto