navajo two grey hills textiles at wheelwright

Publication: Journal Santa Fe Section; Date: Feb 4, 2011; Section: Gallery Guide; Page: S8

ART OF OUTSIDE Exhibition of weavings shows timeless dynamic Art Issues

MALIN WILSONPOWELL

For the Journal

The Wheelwright Museum is a little gem providing a reliably unique experience, and it is almostalways filled with treasures. It bumps you out of the dayto-day as you approach and stand on theoutdoor apron-terrace to soak up grand, open vistas before entering its hogan-bunkergeodesicmash-up of a building. In many ways, it is a recapitulation (though much less dramatic) of the dailyenvironment of a traditional Navajo living in a remote, smoky hogan in the midst of vast, rollingterrain and big skies.

By necessity and preference, Navajos who followed the weaver’s path have been, and oftencontinue to be, outsiders. The majority were not only raised outside mainstream U.S. culture, theywere literally raised outside, usually spending four months in mountain summer camps with theirfamily herding sheep. The artists in this exhibition invariably speak about their childhood delightduring long days in the high pines under the stars. Early photographs often show these busywomen working at homemade looms set up outside, weather permitting.

In the accompanying gallery, Yazzie Blackhorse (1913-1965) relates a story about her mothertelling her and her sister that, if they wanted to weave, they would need to gather wool frombushes and fences. The resourceful girls chased the sheep back and forth through a barbed wirefence and gathered enough to make their first rug on a loom they built in secret and hid in anearby arroyo.

Despite limited exhibition space at the Wheelwright, there are 38 cream-of-the-crop Toadlena-TwoGrey Hills textiles by 26 master weavers dating from the 1910s to 2005. Displayed like themasterpieces they are, each is illuminated from above against labyrinthine dark walls, so that anumber of them look backlit, a perceptual foolthe-eye surprise.

Overheard more than once while enjoying the exhibition were exclamations by visitors that theweavings made them “dizzy” or their “heads spin” or their “eyes pop.” Considering that these arenot the Navajo weavings in bright reds and oranges called eye dazzlers and that Toadlena-Two GreyHills weavers rely on the natural colors of locally bred sheep, this is remarkable. If you are drivingthrough the Navajo Nation and come upon a herd of multicolored sheep, it is sure to be a weaver’sherd, while a herd of all one color is mostly likely raised for export wool.

Eveyln George (born 1928) is known for her highly prized herd, and her 1990 tapestry has lush

ART OF OUTSIDE http://epaper.abqjournal.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=Ol...

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deep browns. She also saves special shades for Virginia Deal (born 1926), who, when asked if sheplans to stop this labor-intensive art, replied, “When I quit living.” In terms of color, the 1960weaving by Cora Curley (born 1916) is extraordinary for its harmonious array of warm caramelshades.

Where can I see the lavender and pink sheep? Both Daisy Taugelchee’s Escher-like 1958 tapestryand Elizabeth Billie’s from 1950 have shapes that appear pale lavender. And, Elizabeth Mute’s 1975weaving features lovely blush pinks. It is safe to assume they didn’t study at Yale with JosephAlbers, who first published “The Interactions of Color” in 1963 about the mysterious, internal andoften deceptive logic of color. Yet, by juxtaposition of certain natural colors, they have finessed theshift from natural hues into ones that look improbable.

As the weavings of the Toadlena-Two Grey Hills have become more and more renowned for theirquality and artistry, the weavings have become finer, and more intricate and precise, including anemphasis on the evenness of color. Through the years and generations, these qualities have wonthese weavers top prizes and escalating prices. But sheep’s pelts are unevenly bleached by the sun,and from one year to the next, a sheep’s wool is different. For the master weaver with her ownherd, the mind boggles at the complex considerations from preparing the wool, envisioning theelaborate designs, and weaving it through every season’s change of humidity. Unlike modern pilotsor surgeons, these weavers do not work from checklists to make sure they have the exact length ofeach handspun and blended color they will need.

Not only does each weaver have a palette they prefer, they each have designs they favor. Themajority are legacies from their grandmothers, mothers, aunts or teachers. Using their inheritanceand own creativity, they invent endless kaleidoscopic variations of a central ornamental diamond, ortwo, or three. A few, like the 2002 tapestry by Mary Louis Gould (born 1935) appear to beperpetually unfurling, psychedelic, replicating mandalas. Others, like Bessie Manygoats(1911-2010), feature intricate foursquare objects floating against delicately inflected fields.

The selection of premier rugs on view was made from the collection and inventory of trader MarkWinter, who has done more than 20 years research in the area, where he reopened the ToadlenaTrading Post in 1997. He continues the practice of trading posts that began more than 100 yearsago, with locals paying off accounts when wool is sheared or a rug is finished. The exhibition leanstoward a belief commonly held by the traders that Navajo textiles made for the market are abstractpatterns and decorations with orientalist and pueblo pottery designs that have little symbolicmeaning for the weavers. This seems an inexplicable bias, especially since personal meaning andstories are seen as value added to most works of art.

As Marian Rodee noted in her germinal book “Weaving of the Southwest” (1987), just becausepeoples of non-Western cultures don’t talk about their art the way European Americans talk about it— in “terms of its formal properties, symbolic content, or style” that does not mean it has nomeaning.

This issue became a controversy with a 1996 exhibition at the Museum of Indian Culture thatrecorded Navajo weavers’ responses to historic textiles with new information about mythic symbolsand personal stories found in the weaving. Titled “Weaving a World: Textiles and the Navajo Way ofLife” weavers identified specific uses of color, pattern and intentional weave variations assignificant. How could it be otherwise for an art form that takes many years from start to finish? Bynecessity, each piece has the pulse and weather and momentous occasions of the weaver’s lifewoven into it.


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The title of the Wheelwright’s “Nizhoni Shima’” exhibition is translated as “My Mother, It isBeautiful” … and, they are.

If you go

WHAT: “Nizhoni Shima: Master Weavers of the Toadlena/Two Grey Hills Region”

WHERE: Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, 704 Camino Lejo

WHEN: Through April 17, 2011. Open Mondays-Saturdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays 1 p.m.-5 p.m.

CONTACT: 505-982-4636 or info@ wheelwright.org


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COURTESY THE WHEELWRIGHT MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

To produce the lush, deep browns in this 1985 rug, Evelyn George (born 1928) used handspunnatural-colored wool from her highly prized herd of sheep.


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Elaborate geometric patterns float on a delicately inflected field in this rug, circa 1930, by masterweaver Bessie Manygoats (1911-2010).


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An anonymous weaver used handspun natural-colored wool to create this rug, circa 1930.


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Master weaver Mary Louise Gould (born 1935) used handspun natural-colored wool to createmandala-like patterns in this rug, circa 2005.


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navajo two grey hills textiles at wheelwright

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