Lawrence Tosa, Jemez Pueblo Artist


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Artist Signature - Lawrence Tosa, Jemez Pueblo PainterWatercolor artist Lawrence Tosa was from the Jemez Pueblo.  His paintings are quite rare and thus collectible and were done in what is now known and the Indian School Style. 

Jeanne Snodgrass’ American Indian Painters: A Biographical Directory lists Tosa’s year of birth as 1947, which would mean that he was painting when he was just over ten years old. Interestingly, we’ve seen a few paintings from earlier pueblo artists which featured very similar compositions.  Tosa must have been mimicking his predecessors, which is a fine compliment to them. 

Very little information about Lawrence Tosa (1947-2018) is available.  His name is listed in American Indian Painters: A Biographical Directory in conjunction with a 1958-1959 exhibition at the Museum of New Mexico.  That exhibition—their “Contemporary Indian Artists Annual Exhibition”, most likely—was where this painting was originally sold, alongside works by other Indian School students.  The book does note that Tosa received an award from the 1959 MNM exhibit.

Reference: Snodgrass, Jeanne O. American Indian Painters: A Biographical Directory, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1968