Lot 260A
Charles C. Stewart (American, 1922-2011). "Rainmakers" oil on burlap, 1960. Signed on lower right. Also, a "1960 Fiesta Show" catalogue with dedication from the artist. An impressive painting by Charles Stewart featuring ten Hopi katsinam in all their diversity and vibrant color dancing in a rainmaking ceremony. Given Arizona's desert climate, the katsinam's rainmaking role has traditionally been of the utmost importance. Between February's Powamuyain ceremony when katsinam are called upon to appear and the Niman going home ceremony following the summer solstice, the katsinam perform rain dances which are held in underground kivas early in the year and outdoor plazas come springtime. Such rainmaking dances can last from dawn until dusk. An outstanding painting by Charles Stewart - impressive for its ethnographic meaning, modernist style, and generous size - set in an attractive custom frame. Size of painting: 24" L x 52.5" W (61 cm x 133.4 cm) Size of frame: 26.5" L x 54.625" W (67.3 cm x 138.7 cm)
According to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University, "Hopi katsinam can be male or female, and represent plants, animals, insects, human qualities, the creative force of the sun, and even death. Some are demons who frighten children into behaving properly; most are clan ancestors and beneficent beings. They are messengers who accept Hopi gifts and prayers for health, fertility, and rain and carry them back to the gods. Their role as rainmakers is particularly important to the Hopi, whose agriculture in the high, arid desert of northeastern Arizona has always been precarious." (Peabody Museum, Harvard University website)
Charles C. Stewart was born in Ohio and studied at the Toledo Museum for eight years prior to the Art Student's League in New York City. Following this, Stewart studied art in Mexico as well as the Taos Valley Art School in New Mexico under Louis Ribak. Stewart lived in Taos from 1947 until 1985. During this period he also taught at the Taos Art Association as well as the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
This painting was exhibited at the "1960 Fiesta Show" at the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe and was also featured in the catalogue for that exhibition. A copy of this catalogue, with an inscription from Charles Stewart to the former owners of this piece (To Eunice and Tom -Chuck) handwritten below "Rainmakers" will accompany this painting.
Provenance: Private Louisville, Colorado, USA collection, purchased from the artist at a private showing, May 21, 1962
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#173851
- Condition: Signed by the artist on the lower right. Fiesta Show exhibition label AND Gallery A Taos, New Mexico label on the verso. "#176 / 24" x 52" / C. Stewart Taos / 'Rain Makers'" handwritten in pencil on stretcher on verso. Painting has normal age wear but still shows with vivid imagery and vibrant coloration. Custom frame has minor surface wear, but is otherwise very nice. Wired for suspension and ready to display.
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