Navajo Mountain, plate XI from "Where the Two Came to Their Father: A Navaho War Ceremonial" by Maud Oakes

Navajo Mountain, plate XI from Where the Two Came to Their Father: A Navaho War Ceremonial by Maud Oakes

Navajo Mountain, plate XI from "Where the Two Came to Their Father: A Navaho War Ceremonial"

Maud Oakes

Please call us at 707-546-7352 or email artannex@aol.com to purchase this item.
Title

Navajo Mountain, plate XI from "Where the Two Came to Their Father: A Navaho War Ceremonial"

 
Artist

Maud Oakes

  1903 - 1990 (biography)
Year
1943  
Technique
color stencil (pochoir) 
Image Size
10 13/16 x 9 1/8" image size 
Signature
unsigned, as usual 
Edition Size
not stated 
Annotations
Roman numeral 11 silkscreened in lower right 
Reference
 
Paper
smooth ivory wove 
State
published 
Publisher
Pantheon Books, NY 
Inventory ID
17564 
Price
$250.00 
Description

At the time that Maud Oakes created this image, the United States had been fighting in the Second World War for nearly two years. Oakes was living on the Navajo/Dine reservation conducting enthological research, and as young Navajo men were drafted into battle, Oakes was invited to observe a war ceremony performed for them by the hataatii (medicine man) Jeff King, known in his indigenous language as Hashkeh-yilth-e-yah. This ceremony, intended to keep the souls of warriors healthy and protected, was called "Where the two came to their father".

As part of the ceremony, sand paintings were created to illustrate the story of the two Navajo warriors, Monster Slayer and Child Born of Water, who traveled to the House of the Sun to prepare for battle with the evil spirits plaguing their people. Oakes carefully reproduced the paintings using gouache on deer hide, images which were then reproduced as pochoirs in a large folio. Titled "Where the Two Came to Their Father: A Navaho War Ceremonial Given by Jeff King," it included 18 color serigraphs, Oakes' retelling of the story, and additional text by writer and folklorist Joseph Campbell. It was published by the Bollingen Series I, Pantheon Books, New York, 1943.

The original paintings were executed in sand, pollen, corn meal, and ground flowers. These pochoirs were based on Oakes's watercolors of the paintings, which were destroyed as part of the ritual

 
Please call us at 707-546-7352 or email artannex@aol.com to purchase this item.