Watercolor painting

Museum number:

17-293

Permalink:

ark:/21549/hm21170000293

Accession number:

Acc.1107 and Acc.1953V

Description:

Corn dance ceremony.

Donor:

Norman E.A. Hinds

Collection place:

Kewa Pueblo, Sandoval County, New Mexico

Culture or time period:

Kewa Pueblo

Maker or artist:

Juanita Pena

Collector:

Norman E.A. Hinds

Object type:

ethnography

Object class:

Watercolors (paintings)

Accession date:

1953 and June 15, 1953

Department:

Drawings and paintings

Dimensions:

height 37.6 centimeters and width 24.3 centimeters

Title:

untitled (Title Subject)

Comment:

New Mexico: (Santo Domingo Pueblo). Pena, Tonita (Quah Ah: White Coral Beads) - San Ildefonso Born: June 13, 1895, San Ildefonso Pueblo, N.M. Died: September, 1949. Daughter of Ascencion Vigil and Natividad Pena. Reared by her aunt, Martina Vigil. Niece of Florention Montoya. Married: Juan Rosario Chavez, 1909, who died ca. 1911. Married: Phelipe Herrera and later, Epitacio Aquerro, farmer, who served as governor of Cochiti. Six children: Cecilia, Margaret, Sam, Victoria, Richard, and Joe Hilario Herrera (q.v.) Tonita began painting when she was seven years old. Surrounded by artistic relatives, such as Martina Vigil the potter, it is not surprising that by the age of 21 she was selling and exhibiting widely. She was the only woman painter in her generation and was one of the original group who participated in the contemporary watercolor movement. Oscar B. Jacobson referred to her as the "grand old lady of Pueblo art." Tonita often said that she preferred to paint children and animals. In 1934, Oren Arnold stated in the L. A. Times, "The canvases of Miss Pena and her associates [Awa Tsireh, Fred Kabotie, and Oqwa Pi qq.v.] depict figures which are not unlike the figures of Greek vase painters." Education: San Ildefonso; St. Catherine's. Career: Painter and housewife, art instructor at Santa Fe Indian School and Albuquerque Indian School. Honors: One of the artists who made copies of the Pajarito murals preparatory to the restoration work. Commissions: Murals - James W. Young's Rancho La Canada, ca. 1933; Society of Independent Artists, 1933; Chicago World's Fair; Santa Fe Indian School. Work published: Jacobson and D'Ucel (1950); La Farge (1960); Introduction to American Indian Art (1931); The American Magazine of Art (Aug. 1932); Theatre Arts Monthly (Aug. 1933); School Arts Magazine (Sept. 1933); St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Oct. 1, 1933); L. A. Times (Sun. Mag. Feb. 11, 1934; Cincinnati Art Museum Bulletin (Jan. 1938). Exhibitions: AIEC, AIM, AIW, EITA, HM, ITIC, MNM, NGA, NMSF, OU/ET, PAC. Collections: Public - AMNH, CAM, CAMSL, CGA, CGFA, CIS, CU/LMA, DAM, DCC, GM, MAI, MKMcNAI, MNA/KHC, MRFM, OU/MA, PAC, PU/M, SM; La Fonda Hotel, Santa Fe, N.M.; Private - Adlerblum, Dietrich, Dockstader, Elkus, A. Forbes, Hogue, H. Hoover, Lockett, D. Maxwell, Rockefeller, Thoeny, Woffard, Wyman.

Images:

Legacy documentation: