Pablita Verarde, 87, Santa Clara Pueblo painter ‘blazed a trail’ for Indian, female artists
Hoodoo
female artists
http://images.freenewmexican.com/2006/01/13/26897_600x400.jpg
Pablita Velarde and her father, Herman Velarde, at Santa Clara Pueblo
in April 1958. Painter Pablita Velarde died this week at age 87.
The New Mexican
January 13, 2006
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/37728.html
The woman who honored her own Tewa birth name Tse Tsa -- Golden Dawn
-- by creating bright and captivating paintings died in Albuquerque at
87 on Tuesday.
Known to the world as Pablita Velarde, the Santa Clara Pueblo artist
achieved international acclaim as an acutely observant traditionalist
painter who managed to tell her cultural history in a variety of media
even as she bent tradition to achieve her personal artistic goals.
"She really blazed a trail both for Native American and women artists
by following her dream from the time she was a young girl," said
Shelby Tisdale, director of Santa Fe's Museum of Indian Arts and
Culture. "The museum has been planning an exhibition of her work for
the spring featuring all her paintings from Bandelier National
Monument. Now it seems more important than ever to honor her lifetime
of work."
Replete with exacting detail of native daily life, dress and
ceremonies, Velarde's work is also considered of immense ethnographic
importance. Just last spring, Velarde was honored by the state
Legislature when it declared Native American New Deal Art Day. At that
time, she and Navajo artist Harrison Begay were the only living
artists who had been part of New Mexico's version of an important
Depression Era program known as the Works Progress Administration
(1933-1943).
The federal agency paid artists to help them survive the Depression
while documenting culture in its myriad forms. Velarde, who began by
recording native hairstyles, ended up the first woman in the modern
era to paint murals at Bandelier.
Her works, which articulate Pueblo history, were recently restored
when the state celebrated Bandelier's 90th anniversary. During her
tenure with the program, Velarde created more than 85 pieces.
At the Roundhouse ceremony, Velarde said that she had not known how
important the arts program would turn out to be. "Today, I feel like
I've accomplished a lot with my life," she said.
In 1933, she was asked to contribute a painting to the World's Fair in
Chicago. Critical acclaim followed. In 1938, Velarde and her work
toured with writer-artist Ernest Thompson Seton, who built Seton
Castle outside Santa Fe. Teaching briefly at Santa Clara Day School,
she is reputed to have been the first woman artist to build her own
studio in New Mexico's pueblos. Working in casein, tempera, oil and
acrylic, she drew on an enormous well of inner strength in documenting
pueblo life as she knew it. Sometimes she received unwanted attention
for daring to paint in an era when most Indian women artists were
still potters.
In a 1979 interview with Las Cruces public television she said,
"Painting was not considered women's work in my time. A woman was
supposed to be just a woman, like a housewife and a mother and chief
cook. Those were things I wasn't interested in."
By the 1950s, Velarde's single-minded dedication to her art had made
her the best-known woman artist in New Mexico's pueblos. Her acclaim
was international. She received the Palmes d'Académiques in 1954, The
Waite Phillips Trophy in 1968 and the New Mexico Governor's Award in
1977. Today Velarde's work is found in private and public collections
including the Museum of New Mexico, the Avery Collection at the
Arizona State Museum, the Ruth and Charles Elkus Collection of Native
American Art, and in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural
History.
"Her work is a defining element in the aesthetic of the Southwest,"
said Stuart Ashman, secretary of the Department of Cultural Affairs.
"Pablita Velarde's work gave the world a kind of sensitive glimpse
into Native American life and sensibilities. Her almost musical
depictions of animals and keenly observed moments in daily life made
her extraordinary vision appear simple and accessible."
Velarde, was born in Santa Clara Pueblo in 1918 and lived much of the
last 50 years in Albuquerque. Her body will be returned to her pueblo
for burial according to native custom in a private ceremony. A
celebration of her life will take place at Ventana Fine Art at 400
Canyon Road from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 21. The gallery, which
represents Velarde's granddaughter, noted painter Margarete
Bagshaw-Tindel, is in the process of gathering samples of Velarde's
work as well as a portrait of the artist.
Velarde is survived by her son, Herbert Oliver Hardin II; half-sister,
Teresita Guiterrez; half-brother, Alfred Velarde of Ogden, Utah; as
well as several grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Bill Schenley
> Tse Tsa -- Golden Dawn -- by creating bright and
> captivating paintings died in Albuquerque at 87 on
> Tuesday.
Portrait of Pablita Velarde:
http://www.matzkinstudio.com/images/womenofage/pages/women02_jpg.htm
> Known to the world as Pablita Velarde, the Santa Clara
> Pueblo artist achieved international acclaim as an acutely
> observant traditionalist painter who managed to tell her
> cultural history in a variety of media even as she bent
> tradition to achieve her personal artistic goals.
She worked in the earthtone paints that she made herself by using
mineral and rock elements which she ground on a metate and manoš until
she got a powdery substance.
http://www.chimayotrading.com/Paintings/pablita-2.jpg
http://www.chimayotrading.com/Paintings/pablita-1.jpg
<snipped>
> Working in casein, tempera, oil and acrylic, she drew on an
> enormous well of inner strength in documenting pueblo life
> as she knew it.
In addition to casein, tempera, oil and acrylic, much of her earliest
works were done in watercolor. One of the best SW Indian artists that
I've ever seen.
http://www.askart.com/AskART/photos/JUL8262004/452.jpg
http://www.savvycollector.com/types/native2/velarde.jpg
http://www.turtletrack.org/Issues02/Co06292002/Art/Green_Corn_Dance.jpg
http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/band/exb_art/BAND678_painting_exb.jpg
http://www.heard.org/rain/prints2/awatovi2.html (part of a mural)
š http://www.sbnature.org/research/anthro/chumash/image/initale.jpg