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Indian Country Today -
Newspaper
June 15, 2005
Southwest artists honored
for excellence
© Indian Country Today June 15, 2005. All Rights
Reserved
SANTA FE, N.M. - As Santa
Fe prepares for the Aug. 20 - 21 Santa Fe Indian Market, a prestigious
event that attracts artists, collectors, musicians and filmmakers,
the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts recognized some of
Indian country's finest artists with Lifetime Achievement awards
for 2005.
This year's awards honored
Luiseno painter Fritz Scholder, Pueblo artists Lucy Yepa Lowden
and Josephine Nahohai, and Pueblo author Joe S. Sando. Established
in 1995, the Lifetime Achievement award recognizes artists whose
body of work reflects a lifetime of integrity and excellence,
artists who have made significant contributions to the work of
American Indian art.
''Lifetime Achievement award
winners read like a 'Who's Who' of Native American artists,''
SAIA said in a statement.
The late Lowden, Jemez Pueblo,
was a textile artist and ''little people'' creator, while Nahohai,
Zuni Pueblo, is a traditional potter. Sando, Jemez Pueblo, is
an historian and author. For the first time, a non-Indian recipient
was selected: Ruth Schultz, longtime patron of American Indian
art.
Meanwhile, SAIA selected
Benjamin Harjo Jr., Seminole/Shawnee, as the official poster artist
for the Santa Fe Indian Market.
Harjo, often referred to
as the ''Indian Picasso,'' said his influences are Mayan, Aztec,
Northwest Coast and even cartoons and comics. Harjo's Indian Market
poster, a bright acrylic painting on paper entitled ''Market Treasures,''
is layered with symbolic shapes and humor.
While creating the painting,
Harjo said he remembered all the activity and color at Indian
Market and how people attend to find ''art to live with - a treasure
to take back home.''
Inspiration, too, comes from
the competitive buyers. Harjo joked, ''Sometimes they get there
a little too late and think 'Darn, I should've been here sooner!'
realizing someone else has already bought the piece they wanted.''
Scholder was well-known as
a painting instructor in the 1960s at the Institute of American
Indian Arts in Santa Fe. At a time when American Indian painting
was highly stylized, he attempted to break the long-held clich?s
using art as his vehicle and incorporating pop ideas. Scholder,
born in 1937, died last February. Scholder's paintings and prints
appear in numerous national collections.
Lowden was born in 1916 and
also died this year. She called her one-foot-tall creations ''little
people,'' and never referred to her works as ''dolls.''
Lowden was known as a cultural
treasure for her talent in making ''little people'' and traditional
Pueblo weaving. She began creating art as a weaver in the traditional
Pueblo style. The winner of many national awards, she taught arts
and crafts at Albuquerque and Santa Fe Indian schools and at the
IAIA.
Nahohai is reknowned for
her use of owl images. She said the owl ''is the protector of
the night, always on the lookout for your family and making sure
that your family is safe.''
Nahohai is often credited
with keeping Zuni pottery making alive in the mid-20th century.
In 1985 she was awarded the Katrin H. Lamon Artist's Fellowship
from the School of American Research in Santa Fe to teach other
Zuni women how to make traditional pottery.
Sando, Sun Clan of Jemez
Pueblo, is a well-known historian and writer. He taught Pueblo
history at the University of New Mexico and ethnohistory at the
IAIA.
Sando has been a columnist
for the Albuquerque Tribune and written several books, including
''Pueblo Profiles: Cultural Identity through Centuries of Change''
and ''Pueblo Nations: Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian History.''
Sando currently serves as
a director on the boards of the New Mexico Hispanic Cultural Center
in Albuquerque and the New Mexico Distinguished Public Service
Awards Committee. A frequent lecturer on Indian issues in the
United States, Sando has also appeared in numerous television
documentaries.
Schultz has served as board
member and volunteer for the Indian Market. Recognized many times
in the Southwest, Schultz was awarded the New Mexico Governor's
Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2004 for her community service
and patronage toward the arts.
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Country Today website for more articles related to
this topic.
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