Lot 90
Jack To'Baahe Gene (Navajo / Dineh, 1953-2016). "Medicine Dance" oil on canvas, 1985. Hand-signed with date in lower right. Title inscribed on verso of wood backing to canvas. An impressive painting by Navajo artist Jack To'Baahe depicting a snowy forest scene of three spirit deities known as yeii dancing before a medicine man, as a snow-capped peak of the San Francisco Mountains rises in the background. All wearing blue masks and crowned by feathers, the yeii appear as kachinas, adorned with colorful fabrics, hides, bells, boots, and ruffs as they carry various implements. The medicine man stands to the right, extending one hand as though gesturing to the supernatural beings. A beautiful painting portraying a mystical moment in Navajo culture. Size of painting: 23.25" W x 17.25" H (59.1 cm x 43.8 cm); of frame: 30" W x 24" H (76.2 cm x 61 cm)
About the artist: "Jack To'Baahe Gene was born into the world of the Dineh and raised by his paternal grandparents in the remote hills of Smoke Signal, Arizona. From his grandfather, a medicine man, he learned the spiritual ways of his people. From his grandmother, an herbalist and weaver, he learned of the powers invested in all living things. 'They taught me to see things, to observe.' Jack Gene remembers, 'While I was growing up they were teaching me art with everything they did. They would say, 'See, the trees and plants are moving, they are alive.' Wed look at the clouds and the mountains. Now my art is based on all those things, but are not just clouds anymore. I'm going beyond what my grandparents taught me. Now I strive for the soul of clouds and mountains.'
"His formative years were spent under the great skies of the Colorado Plateau, riding long distances on horseback, listening to stories and singing the songs of the Dineh. Within the Hogan, Jack worked with colored sands to create the beautiful and symbolic sand paintings for which the Dineh are famous. It was here that the artist within began the long journey out into the modern world."
Today, Jack Gene is a consummate professional artist who paints directly from the soul of the Dineh culture. His images are colorful, compelling and intimate visions of a land and people long hidden from the outside world. His painting style is a unique combination of influences: from Native sand painting to the European painting traditions of Rembrandt, Millet and Courbet. Sand finds its way into his surfaces; made rough to flesh out the coarseness of life lived on bare ground. Bold color rakes through images of clothing or hillsides, a modernists color sensibility fused to an ancient awareness. Everything is symbolic; nothing is exactly what it appears to be. In this way, Jack brings to life, through painting, the visions of the medicine world, the world of the healer. For this is what he is, a healing path between opposites: the ancient and the modern; the past and the future; the sand and the spirit." (source: Bischoff's Gallery website)
Provenance: private Boulder, CO, USA collection
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#188720
- Condition: Set in custom wood frame with suspension wire on verso for display. Painting and frame are both in excellent overall condition. "Medicine Dance" oil on canvas, 1985. Hand-signed with date in lower right. Title inscribed on verso of wood backing to canvas.
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