![]() ![]() Spell it Awa Tsireh-pronounce it A-Wa Si-dy! Whoever he is, he’s the Indian silversmith responsible for that symbolical silver plate which Elizabeth and Joe, to wed today, will give choice place in their household. He was the most prominent of the many silversmiths who worked at the trading post over the decades which included Hosteen Goodluck, Billy Goodluck and David Taliman.Ĭopper crumb tray in the shape of a cloud made by Awa TsirehĪwa Tsireh's metalwork did not go without notice, as in 1938, when the Hutchinson, Kansas News-Herald, while reporting on the impending nuptials of a local couple, exclaimed: His sister Santana Martinez recalled that “during the summer during the thirties and forties he used to go to a shop in Colorado Springs and do his paintings and silverwork there” (Seymour, When the Rainbow Touches Down). Postcard of Awa Tsireh dressed in Plains attire at Colorado SpringsĪwa Tsireh’s association with Garden of the Gods Trading Post had begun by 1930 and continued for at least two decades. Strausenback, and is still in operation in the same building on the southern boundary of the Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs. Garden of the Gods Trading Post was built in 1929 by Charles E. However, it was at Garden of the Gods Trading Post in Colorado Springs where the majority of his metalwork was made. John Adair reported in his 1944 book The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths that Awa Tsireh was only one of three men in San Ildefonso who worked silver, and that he made pieces in his studio for the tourists who visited the pueblo. ![]() ![]() It is not known when or from whom Awa Tsireh learned silversmithing but by 1931 he was described in a newspaper article as a painter and, “also a mural painter, a silversmith and a dancer.” Animal forms such as skunks, roadrunners, and owls were also favored subjects of his silverwork. In 1931 Awa Tsireh joined with other San Ildefonso artists, including Maria Martinez, Tonita Roybal and Abel Sanchez (Oqwa Pi), to exhibit their works at the Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts in New York City.Īwa Tsireh’s paintings of pueblo dancers and mythology, including black-and-white striped clowns (or kossa) and animals like skunks, owls, and turkeys were meticulously and precisely drawn in both realistic and modernistic styles. Awa Tsireh’s fame grew nationally in the 1920s prompting a successful one-man show in Chicago he also painted most of the illustrations for the book Tewa Firelight Tales by Ahlee James published in 1927. In the summer of 1917 Santa Fe poet Alice Corbin Henderson was introduced to Awa Tsireh’s paintings and she became his first patron and promoter. Modernist painting of Deer Dancer by Awa Tsireh As a young man Awa Tsireh (Cat-tail Bird) painted the decorations on the pottery his mother made. ![]() He did not continue his education after leaving the day school, and his drawing and painting skills were mostly self-taught though he also learned from watching his uncle Crescencio Martinez who used watercolors to paint dancers on paper in the mid-1910s for Edgar Lee Hewitt. He drew sketches of dances and animals even before attending San Ildefonso Day School where the teacher provided drawing supplies. Sepia-toned lithograph of Awa Tsireh made by Charles Strausenback ca 1930sĪwa Tsireh (pronounced Ah-wah Sid-ee or See-day) was born in 1898 to Juan Estevan and Alfonsita Martinez Roybal he was the eldest of six children. San Ildefonso artist Awa Tsireh (Alfonso Roybal) is best known as an early master of Pueblo painting but in his lifetime he also gained renown as a silversmith. This blog has moved, please follow it here: The Metalwork of Awa Tsireh ![]()
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