Smithsonian American Art Museum: The Modern Pueblo Painting of Awa Tsireh Now Open Our Coverage Sponsored by Martin's Tavern of Georgetown Est. 1933
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Awa Tsireh, Buffalo Dancers, about 1920-1930, watercolor and pencil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Corbin-Henderson Collection, Gift of Alice H. Rossin
Sept. 4 - Jan. 31, 2016
Where
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Eighth and F streets N.W.
Graphic Arts galleries, second floor
Description
The paintings of Awa Tsireh (1898-1955) represent an encounter between the art traditions of native Pueblo peoples in the Southwestern United States and the American modernist art style begun in New York, which spread quickly across the country. Tsireh, also known by his Spanish name, Alfonso Roybal, decorated pottery as a young man on the San Ildefonso Pueblo near Santa Fe, N.M. Later, at the encouragement of Anglo patrons, he translated the forms and symbols of his pottery designs into watercolor paintings on paper. His stylized forms echoed the Art Deco aesthetic that was so popular between the two world wars, and his linear compositions appealed to modernist sensibilities.
Tsireh's unusual blending of native and Anglo influences found an audience among the many artists, writers, educators, anthropologists and archaeologists who discovered the charms of the ancient cultures of the Southwest and descended on Santa Fe in great numbers. The poet Alice Corbin Henderson moved to Santa Fe during World War I and took particular interest in Tsireh, assembling a large body of his work. The paintings in this exhibition were donated to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1979 by her daughter, Alice H. Rossin.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum collection includes 51 watercolors created between 1917 and 1930. "The Modern Pueblo Painting of Awa Tsireh" is the first time the group of paintings have been on public view together. The exhibition serves to integrate more fully Tsireh's work into the story of American art.The exhibition was organized by Joann Moser, deputy chief curator.
About the Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrates the vision and creativity of Americans with artworks in all media spanning more than three centuries. Its National Historic Landmark building is located at Eighth and F streets N.W., above the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail station. Museum hours are11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily (closed Dec. 25). Admission is free. Follow the museum on Twitter, YouTube,Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest, iTunes U and ArtBabble. Museum information (recorded): (202) 633-7970. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000. Website: americanart.si.edu.
