Leaping Stags

Marina Lujan Pop Chalee

Pop Chalee - Tiwa Puebloan for "Blue Flower" - was born Merina Lujan in Castle Gate, Utah, on March 20, 1906. Her father was a Taos Pueblo tribal member and her mother was Swiss. As with many Southwestern tribal artists of the mid 20th century, she participated in the dissemination of her work through screenprinted reproductions of her watercolors, working closely with the printers and publishers at Tewa Enterprises in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is one such reproduction.

Chalee attended the Santa Fe Indian School's art division, called The Studio School, headed by Dorothy Dunn. Though she got a much later start than many of her fellow students, she was encouraged to proceed by Dunn, and by the mid 1930s her work was becoming recognized throughout the Southwest.

Additionally, Chalee established a name for herself as a promoter of Native American artists. She was involved in the mid-century movement to establish the idea that Native American art should, in fact, be defined as having been made by Native Americans. Until the mid 20th century, the overwhelming majority of the art world allowed for Native American subject matter painted by non-Native artists to be considered categorically Native American.