by Artist (754)
Cloud Symbol Dancer During Mountain Chant Ceremony
about 1995
Object Type:
Drawing
Creation Place:
North America, American
Dimensions:
11 1/2 x 9 1/4 in. (29 x 23 cm)
Medium and Support:
Acrylic, gouache, and ink on paper
Accession Number:
2024.0003.0002
Credit Line:
Gift of Rebecca and Jack Drake
Harrison Begay was a Navajo painter and silkscreen printer whose work centered on the magic and beauty of Native American culture. Begay was born on November 15, 1917, in Whitecone, Arizona; his Navajo name is Haskay Yahne Yah, meaning “The Wandering Boy” in his native Diné. He was raised in a hogan, a traditional Navajo dwelling, where his family raised goats, sheep, and other farm animals. In 1934, he started boarding school at the Santa Fe Indian School, a state sponsored school for Native Americans in the Southwest. During this time, he began to learn about art from Dorothy Dunn; Dunn believed that Native Americans were predisposed to artistic ability and encouraged them to use their art as a narrative vehicle for their identities. Begay continued his training into his adulthood, working with the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project in the 1930s and enrolling at Black Mountain College in 1940 to study architecture. He experimented with different media and techniques throughout his life but almost always with Navajo life as his inspiration. His identity fueled his work as an artist and as an appreciator of art, he went on to found Tewa Enterprises in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1951, a printing company dedicated to printing works by Native American artists at affordable cost. Begay died on August 18, 2012 in Gilbert, Arizona after dedicating his life to uplifting the art and traditions of his Navajo community.
The painting Cloud Symbol Dancer at Mountain Chant Ceremony is a flatstyle painting, a technique originally developed in Oklahoma and pioneered by Begay’s childhood art teacher, Dororthy Dunn. Flatstyle is a distinctly Native American style of painting that emphasizes shape and color, often vibrant colors at that. This technique places the subjects front and center, forcing the viewer to focus on the movement of the figure(s). Begay’s work is a depiction of a mountain chant ceremony, a Navajo ceremony performed by a medicine man to calm mental unrest or uneasiness. The ceremony itself involves prayer, singing, drumming, dancing, and even painting to work through this unrest as a community. The vibrant yellows, greens, and purples in the piece highlight the joy involved in performing this traditional practice.
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