Lot 92D
Edward Curtis (American, 1868-1952). "The Kiva Stairs - San Ildefonso" photogravure, ca. 1925. Title beneath image with "From Copyright Photograph 1925 by E. L. Curtis," and "Photogravure Suffolk Eng. Co. Cambridge, Mass." "Plate 584" above image. In this piece, titled "The Kiva Stairs - San Ildefonso," Curtis presents a single Native American male standing on the roof of a Pueblo ceremonial chamber known as a kiva, which is surrounded by parapets. Leaning against the stair's wall, the figure gazes right perhaps standing guard. This photogravure was part of Edward Curtis' epic 20 volume project to document Native Americans threatened by Westward expansion in the United States entitled "The North American Indian" (1907-1930) - a masterwork that experts have estimated would cost more than $35 million to create today. Size of image: 11.5" W x 15.25" H (29.2 cm x 38.7 cm); of page: 17.5" W x 21.75" H (44.4 cm x 55.2 cm); of frame: 20.25" W x 24.25" H (51.4 cm x 61.6 cm)
The accompanying text for this plate reads as follows, "Pueblo ceremonial chambers are known as kivas (the Hopi name) or estufas (the name applied to them by the Spaniards under the misapprehension that they were sudatories). They are circular or rectangular, wholly or partly subterranean, or simply cells in the communal structure that forms a pueblo. The character of the underlying soil or rock was probably the factor that determined the degree to which a kiva was made subterranean. The one here illustrated is mostly underground, and has a walled stair leading to the roof, which is surrounded by a parapet. Similar structures have been found in excavating ruined pueblos." (See Volume XVII, illustration facing page 68.)
To learn more about Curtis' impressive undertaking, please read Gilbert King's article in Smithsonian Magazine. It opens as follows, with King brilliantly capturing Curtis' urgency and steadfast work ethic to document the indigenous peoples before expansion would potentially eclipse their cultures, "Year after year, he packed his camera and supplieseverything hed need for monthsand traveled by foot and by horse deep into the Indian territories. At the beginning of the 20th century, Edward S. Curtis worked in the belief that he was in a desperate race against time to document, with film, sound and scholarship, the North American Indian before white expansion and the federal government destroyed what remained of their natives way of life. For thirty years, with the backing of men like J. Pierpont Morgan and former president Theodore Roosevelt, but at great expense to his family life and his health, Curtis lived among dozens of native tribes, devoting his life to his calling until he produced a definitive and unparalleled work, The North American Indian. The New York Herald hailed as 'the most ambitious enterprise in publishing since the production of the King James Bible.'" ("Edward Curtis Epic Project to Photograph Native Americans" by Gilbert King - Smithsonian Magazine March 21, 2012)
While Curtis has had his critics who have claimed that he romanticized the natives' existence, others have argued that he was ahead of his time and depicted them with dignity and respect. In her book entitled, "Shadow Catcher: The Life and Work of Edward S. Curtis" (Bison Books, 2005) Laurie Lawlor wrote, "When judged by the standards of his time, Curtis was far ahead of his contemporaries in sensitivity, tolerance and openness to Native American cultures and ways of thinking. He sought to observe and understand by going directly into the field."
This photograph was in the esteemed collection of Ginny Williams, a pioneering patron of the arts in Denver, Colorado. Sotheby's hosted a series of auctions featuring art and photography in the Ginny Williams Collection in June and July of 2020. Their press release began as follows, "Born in rural Virginia in 1927, Ginny moved to Denver, Colorado in the late 1950s with her husband, Carl Williams. An avid photographer herself, who studied with Austrian-American photojournalist and photographer Ernst Haas, her collecting journey began with classical figurative photography. Her passion and keen eye eventually prompted her to open her namesake gallery in Denver in the 1980s. While her passion for photography never waned, remaining a primary focus of both her gallery and private collection, her voracious curiosity quickly widened her curatorial focus. Over time, Ginny became increasingly courageous and experimental in her selections, venturing into Abstract Expressionism and Contemporary Art and following her artists themselves through gallery shows and museum exhibitions. As the years passed, Ginny became as much of a trailblazer as the artists she collected."
Provenance: private Erie, Colorado, USA collection, acquired in the 1970s
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#189646
- Condition: Set behind glass in custom matte and frame; has not been examined outside of glass. Some light tattering to edges of page and minor discoloring of paper, but otherwise in very good condition with good imagery. Title beneath image with "From Copyright Photograph 1925 by E. L. Curtis," and "Photogravure Suffolk Eng. Co. Cambridge, Mass." "Plate 584" above image. Suspension wire on verso of frame for display.
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