Awa Tsireh
{{Short description|American painter}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Awa Tsireh
| native_name =
| native_name_lang = Tewa
| image = Indian_artist_Awa_Tsireh.jpg
| caption = Photo postcard of Awa Tsireh in Plains Indian attire, ca 1930s, at Manitou, Colorado.
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1898|02|01}}
| birth_place = San Ildefonso Pueblo
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1955|03|30|1898|02|01}}
| death_place = San Ildefonso Pueblo
| known_for = Painting, Metalwork
| awards = Ordre des Palmes Académiques, 1954
| patrons = Edgar Lee Hewett, Alice Corbin
|birth_name = Alfonso Roybal, Cattail Bird|movement = San Ildefonso Self-Taught Group}}
File:Eagle with Snake, Awa Tsireh.jpg
Awa Tsireh (February 1, 1898 – March 30, 1955),{{Cite web|title = The Modern Pueblo Painting of Awa Tsireh|url = http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2015/tsireh/|website = Smithsonian American Art Museum|access-date = 2016-01-11}} also known as Alfonso Roybal{{Cite web|title = Awa Tsireh, American Art|url = http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=180|website = Smithsonian American Art Museum|access-date = 2016-01-11}} and Cattail Bird, was a San Ildefonso Pueblo painter and artist in several genres including metalwork. He was part of the art movement known as the San Ildefonso Self-Taught Group. His work is held by several museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Early life
Awa Tsireh was born into the San Ildefonso Pueblo. His family was very active in the arts. His parents were Alfonsita Martinez, a potter, and Juan Estaba Roybal, the nephew of potter Cresencio Martinez.{{cite news|last1=Henderson|first1=Alice Corbin|title=The World of Art: A Boy Painter Among the Pueblo Indians and Unspoiled Native Work|publisher=The New York Times Magazine|date=6 September 1925}} His nephew José Disiderio (J.D.) Roybal also became a painter.{{Cite web|title = Untitled (clown dancer) by JD Roybal|url = http://collections.harwoodmuseum.org/view/objects/asitem/People@1584/0?t:state:flow=728254d7-5889-48e8-b036-e066efe171b2|website = Harwood Museum|access-date = 2016-01-11}} His siblings included the artists Josefa Roybal, Santana Roybal Martinez (1909–2002), and Ralph Roybal.{{Cite web|title=Josefa Roybal {{!}} Smithsonian American Art Museum|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/josefa-roybal-4172|access-date=2021-06-06|website=americanart.si.edu|language=en-US}}
Awa Tsireh was one of the earliest of the San Ildefonso painters. His formal education ended at grade school but he drew from his culture and informal training.{{Cite web|title = Alfonso Roybal, Native American Painter|url = http://www.adobegallery.com/artist/Alfonso_Roybal_1898_195516835189|website = Adobe Gallery, Santa Fe|access-date = 2016-01-13}} Awa Tsireh was also among the students of Elizabeth Willis DeHuff, who instructed students in painting from her own home."Velino Shije Herrera." St. James Guide to Native North American Artists. Gale, 1998. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 4 Oct. 2011.Arthur Silberman. "Herrera, Velino." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. 4 Oct. 2011
In 1917, American artist William Penhallow Henderson painted a portrait of young Awa Tsireh, which is now held by the New Mexico Museum of Art.{{Cite web|title = Awa Tsireh (1917)|url = http://sam.nmartmuseum.org/view/objects/asitem/People$004082/1?t:state:flow=31fa5097-29d2-4155-a3b5-ec07f2f1e88c|website = SAM {{!}} Searchable Art Museum|access-date = 2016-01-12|publisher = New Mexico Museum of Art|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023648/http://sam.nmartmuseum.org/view/objects/asitem/People$004082/1?t:state:flow=31fa5097-29d2-4155-a3b5-ec07f2f1e88c|archive-date = 2016-03-04|url-status = dead}} Henderson's wife, Alice Corbin Henderson, was a patron of Awa Tsireh.{{cite book|title=St. James Guide to Native North American Artists|url=https://archive.org/details/stjamesguidetona0000unse|url-access=registration|date=1998|publisher=St. James Press|location=Detroit, MI|isbn=1558622217|page=[https://archive.org/details/stjamesguidetona0000unse/page/38 38]}}
In 1920, Awa Tsireh married a young woman from his village. The following year she gave birth to a son, but both mother and child died soon after. Affected greatly, Awa Tsireh moved to his parents' home.{{Cite book |last1=Messier |first1=Pat |title=Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry: Artists, Traders, Guilds, and the Government |last2=Messier |first2=Kim |publisher=Schiffer Publishing |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-7643-4670-5 |location=Atglen, Pennsylvania |pages=88–91 |chapter=Awa Tsireh}}
Work
Awa Tsireh had the support of Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett, who provided studio space for him in the Palace of the Governors.{{cite news|title=Dead Indian Identified as Top Artist|publisher=The New Mexican|date=March 31, 1955}} His art is in the permanent collection of several museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum.{{cite web|title = Awa Tsireh Artwork|url = http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/results/index.cfm?rows=10&q=&page=1&start=0&fq=name:%22Awa%20Tsireh%22|access-date = 5 June 2015|website = Smithsonian American Art Museum}}{{Dead link|date=October 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
=Metalwork=
It is not known when, or from whom, Awa Tsireh learned silversmithing, but by 1931 newspaper articles described him as a painter, silversmith and dancer. Around 1930 he began working in the summer months at Garden of the Gods Trading Post in Colorado Springs, Colorado and he was employed there into the 1940s. 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 paintings and silverwork there."{{Cite book|title=When the Rainbow Touches Down|last=Seymour|first=Tryntje Van Ness|publisher=The Heard Museum|year=1988|isbn=0-934351-01-5|location=Phoenix|pages=156}} He worked in silver, copper, nickel silver and aluminum.{{Cite book|last1=Messier|first1=Pat|title=Garden of the Gods Trading Post: Images of America|last2=Messier|first2=Kim|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2019|isbn=978-1467102988|location=Mount Pleasant, South Carolina|pages=111–116}}
Awards and honors
- 1931–1933 – Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts (EITA), sponsored by the College Art Association
- SWAIA, Southwestern Association on Indian Affairs, Santa Fe, New Mexico
- AIW, American Indian Week, Tulsa, Oklahoma
- 1954 – Palmes d' Academiques, from the French Government{{cite book |title=The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters (BDNAP) |last=Lester |first=Patrick D. |publisher=SIR Publications |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-8061-9936-8 |location=Tulsa, Oklahoma |edition=1st |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldire0000lest }}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
• [http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=180 Awa Tsireh art collection], Smithsonian American Art Museum{{Flatstyle}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsireh, Awa}}
Category:Native American painters
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:American male painters
Category:Painters from New Mexico
Category:Artists from New Mexico
Category:People from San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico
Category:20th-century American male artists
Category:American silversmiths
Category:Native American male artists