In keeping with the early 20th-century practice of Native American portraiture in Western American art, Slim Woman and Chewing Tobacco Begay is not so much a portrait of two individuals as it is a stereotyped portrait of a culture. The painting reads like a fashion magazine spread, with the sitters relegated to the role of models, posed so that their jewelry is the center of attention (notice how their hands are unnaturally positioned to show off their rings). In this way, the painting reflects and promotes a superficial understanding of Diné (Navajo) culture.
Color: Red
Prelude to Dust
Prelude to Dust pictures a Diné (Navajo) family grouping—a man, two women, and two children—huddled together with their animals against the wind. The force of the gale is shown through the billowing wagon bonnet, the man’s up-turned hat brim, the tipped-over coffee pot, and the blown-back hair of both the women and their horse. The streaks of line and color in the sky above and the valley below add to the windswept effect. The painting captures a defining feature of life in northwest New Mexico, “high wind events,” and speaks to Lloyd Moylan’s close study of the area and its inhabitants, which distinguished him among contemporaries in Western American art during his career.
Moylan occasionally created variations on a theme, and Prelude to Dust is an interesting parallel to From Shiprock to Shonto (also made in 1942) in the University of Arizona Museum of Art collection. From Shiprock to Shonto portrays the same or a similar family, again contending with extreme gusts as they journey across the high desert of the Navajo Nation. Though not entirely accurately depicted, the titanic rock formation in the background of Prelude to Dust may also be that of Shiprock.
Household Duties
Lloyd Moylan created several paintings of Pueblo women performing domestic chores—each in a different artistic style. While cultural documentation was the professed agenda of many early 20th-century Western American artists, with regard to this specific subject, Moylan appears more interested in the composition he is creating than the story he is telling. Notice the simplified and monumentalized shapes of the women in Household Duties. Here, Moylan was perhaps influenced by the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (some records suggest he may have visited Mexico and seen Rivera’s murals in the 1920s).
Untitled (Church in the Rio Grande Valley)
Notice the play of form and texture in Untitled (Church in the Rio Grande Valley). Three different cloud formations—billowing cumulus, popcorn stratus, and wispy cirrus—fill the sky. Immediately below, the horizon consists of a peaked hill of weather-worn red rocks and dirt , against which the pitched roof and steeple of a clean-lined, uniformly built church is set. The precise geometry of the church building contrasts with the undulating curves of its thick adobe courtyard wall. In the lower right corner, the bristly branches of a green bush poke through a pile of sharp-edged, glinting rocks—which look recently placed—interrupting the otherwise smooth, elongated brushstrokes of the foreground.
The painting evokes tensions between human-made and natural, new and ancient, and the lone figure seems caught in the middle. Literally, she is mid-step, her torso turned one way and her head the other. Figuratively, in the way she is moving forward while also looking backward, she may be a reflection of the artist’s creative mindset. In the 1930s, Lantz was part of a group of modernist New Mexican artists seeking “freedom from inhibitions”1 and tradition in art.
Untitled (Portrait of an Indian)
The Albuquerque Journal reported on a show of John Jellico’s work in 1938 that “11 portraits . . . and seven pictures of Indians” were included in the exhibition.1 This distinction between portraiture and “Indian pictures” reveals the cultural biases and dehumanizing stereotypes of the period, which are evident in Untitled (Portrait of an Indian). The emphasis on the sitter’s distinctive attire—his red headband and cuff bracelet—combined with the loose handling of his facial features dilutes and obscures the representation of individuality.
Untitled (Red Rocks)
Albert Lorey Groll, a foundational Western American artist, was acclaimed for his ability to capture the sweeping blue expanse and billowing cloud formations of desert skies. In Untitled (Red Rocks), he expertly takes the viewer on a visual journey through seemingly unbounded time and space.
Navajo Blanket Portfolio – Plate 15
From 1939–1942, the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe sponsored a New Deal Federal Art Project initiative to create a print portfolio of fifteen Navajo weaving designs drawn from its collections, and hired artist Louie Ewing to orchestrate the effort. The silkscreen printing process was a relatively new technology to the United States, so Ewing, with assistance from fellow artist Eliseo Rodriguez, had to essentially invent his own version of it. Two hundred of each print were produced. Prints were distributed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and federal government “Indian service schools,” as well as universities, libraries, and museums nationwide for instructional and educational purposes.
Navajo Blanket Portfolio – Plate 14
From 1939–1942, the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe sponsored a New Deal Federal Art Project initiative to create a portfolio of fifteen Navajo weaving designs drawn from its collections, and hired artist Louie Ewing to orchestrate the effort. The silkscreen printing process was a relatively new technology to the United States, so Ewing, with assistance from fellow artist Eliseo Rodriguez, had to essentially invent his own version of it. Two hundred of each print were produced. Prints were distributed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and federal government “Indian service schools,” as well as universities, libraries, and museums nationwide for instructional and educational purposes.
Navajo Blanket Portfolio – Plate 8
From 1939–1942, the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe sponsored a New Deal Federal Art Project initiative to create a portfolio of fifteen Navajo weaving designs drawn from its collections, and hired artist Louie Ewing to orchestrate the effort. The silkscreen printing process was a relatively new technology to the United States, so Ewing, with assistance from fellow artist Eliseo Rodriguez, had to essentially invent his own version of it. Two hundred of each print were produced. Prints were distributed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and federal government “Indian service schools,” as well as universities, libraries, and museums nationwide for instructional and educational purposes.
Navajo Blanket Portfolio – Plate 7
From 1939–1942, the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe sponsored a New Deal Federal Art Project initiative to create a portfolio of fifteen Navajo weaving designs drawn from its collections, and hired artist Louie Ewing to orchestrate the effort. The silkscreen printing process was a relatively new technology to the United States, so Ewing, with assistance from fellow artist Eliseo Rodriguez, had to essentially invent his own version of it. Two hundred of each print were produced. Prints were distributed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and federal government “Indian service schools,” as well as universities, libraries, and museums nationwide for instructional and educational purposes.