San Ildefonso school

The San Ildefonso school,[1][2] also known as San Ildefonso Self-Taught Group,[3] was an art movement from 1900–1935[4] featuring Native American artists primarily from the San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico. The group consisted of Tonita Peña, Julian Martinez, Awa Tsireh, Crecencio Martinez, Jose Encarnacion Peña, and Luis Gonzales.[3] This was the first known Native American group in the American Southwest to practice easel painting.[5]

San Ildefonso school
Years active1900–1935
CountrySan Ildefonso Pueblo, United States
Major figuresTonita Peña, Julian Martinez, Awa Tsireh, Abel Sanchez, Crecencio Martinez, Luis Gonzales, Encarnación Peña

History

The San Ildefonso school was an art movement from 1900 until 1935, and 1917 was a key year in the production of artwork by the San Ildefonso school according to many art historians including W. Jackson Rushing.[1][4] The artwork during this movement was created utilizing traditional aspects of Native culture but created specifically for a non-Native patronage.[1] It was not until the 1920s these artists were able to sell their work.[6] The first artist from the San Ildefonso school to become well known was Tonita Peña.[6]

Beginning in 1900, Esther Hoyt, a non-Native teacher at the San Ildefonso Day School, taught Native students painting on easels and encouraged the students to "paint as they wished".[6] At the time it was against government policy to allow Native students to paint what they wanted, the school was operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[6][7] Students were given materials by Hoyt and encouraged to sketch their life experiences.[7] Hoyt, provided young Tonita Peña with watercolors when she was a student there.[8] Other students at the San Ildefonso Day School included Crecencio Martinez, Awa Tsireh (Alfonso Roybal), Tonita Peña, Romando Vigil, Alfredo Montoya, Santana Roybal, and Abel Sanchez (Oqwa Pi).[6] After Hoyt left the school, Elizabeth Richards continued to teach painting to elementary school students.[6] Despite being enrolled in classes, these students have been referred to as "self-taught".[6]

Edgar Lee Hewett, a professor of archaeology and the director of the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, was working closely with locals from the San Ildefonso Pueblo on excavations between 1907 and 1908.[8] He said that he "discovered" their ability to draw and paint in watercolor.[9] Hewett encouraged the production of art work from Native American artists and helped gain them financial support of white patrons.[9]

Artwork

Mostly works on paper, the paintings focused on human figures and portrayed Pueblo dances, koshares, ceremonies, and genre scenes of daily life. Backgrounds were minimal or absent.[6] The artists used blacks and whites and bright, flat colors. They added stylized motifs used in other Pueblo artist expressions, such as ceramics, mural painting, and embroidery. The artists used watercolors, and distemper and casein, a milk-based paint.[6]

Critics

During the early 20th century, numerous white Americans became involved in an effort to promote Native American arts within white social circles.[4] Critiques of the San Ildefonso school have been made by those who study "traditional" Native American art, versus art of Native Americans supported (and perhaps shaped by) white patronage.[10]

San Ildefonso school artists

References
  1. Deloria, Philip J. (2019). Becoming Mary Sully Toward an American Indian Abstract. University of Washington Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780295745244.
  2. Curtis, Edward S. The North American Indian. The Tewa. The Zuni. Vol. 17. p. 11. ISBN 9780742698178.
  3. "Highlights from Stanford's Native American paintings collection are showcased in Memory and Markets: Pueblo Painting in the Early 20th Century". Stanford University. 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2016-01-12. Well-known artists such as Tonita Peña and Alfonso Roybal, both from the San Ildefonso Pueblo, are represented in Memory and Markets. Peña was the only woman in the San Ildefonso school, which included such noted artists as Roybal, Luis Gonzales, Julian Martinez, Abel Sanchez, Crecencio Martinez, and Encarnación Peña.
  4. Jacobs, Margaret D. (1998). "Shaping a New Way: White Women and the Movement to Promote Pueblo Indian Arts and Crafts,1900-1935". DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
  5. The Journal of Intercultural Studies, Volumes 24-26. Intercultural Research Institute, Kansai University of Foreign Studies. 1997. p. 58.
  6. Weideman, Paul (August 12, 2016). "Model students: Native painting from the Santa Fe Indian School". Pasatiempo. Retrieved 22 April 2020. "The students from San Ildefonso have been known as the 'self-taught' artists who brought Indian easel painting to the attention of the nation's art patrons,"
  7. Seymour, Tryntje Van Ness (1988). When the Rainbow Touches Down: The Artists and Stories Behind the Apache, Navajo, Rio Grande Pueblo, and Hopi Paintings in the William and Leslie Van Ness Denman Collection. Heard Museum. p. 156. ISBN 9780934351010.
  8. Jacobs, Margaret D. (1999). Engendered Encounters Feminism and Pueblo Cultures, 1879-1934. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 152–32. ISBN 978-0-8032-2586-2.
  9. Neff, Emily Ballew (2006-01-01). The Modern West: American Landscapes, 1890-1950. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300114486.
  10. Jantzer-White, Marilee (1994). "Tonita Peña (Quah Ah), Pueblo Painter: Asserting Identity through Continuity and Change". American Indian Quarterly. 18 (3): 369–382. doi:10.2307/1184742. JSTOR 1184742.
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