Rufina Vigil

Rufina Vigil, also called Sah Wa,[1] was an Puebloan-American painter from the Tesuque Pueblo tribe, part of the Eight Northern Pueblos.[2] Active in the 1930s,[3] she studied under Dorothy Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School. At one time she worked as a drafter in Los Alamos, New Mexico.[2] Vigil's paintings depict Tesuque life, including women gathering guaco and firing pottery.[3] Her 1936 painting Mass at Fiesta is one of the earliest depictions of Catholic Church rituals by an indigenous North American painter.[4]

Rufina Vigil
Sah Wa
NationalityAmerican, Tesuque Puebloan (Tewa)
Educationstudied with Dorothy Dunn
Alma materSanta Fe Indian School
Known forgenre painting
Notable work
Mass at the Fiesta
Women Gathering Guaco, 1935, figurative painting by Rufina Vigil.

Vigil was a genre painter, who painted daily and ceremonial life at Tesuque Pueblo.[4] Vigil's work has been described as "painted in a deliberate, independent style" that depicts everyday life at the pueblo, and "women's roles in her community in the 1930s."[5] Dorothy Dunn wrote of Vigil: "She had great patience with fine detail and was adept at composition."[4]

Her painting, Mass at the Fiesta, was exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in the 1953 Contemporary American Indian Painting exhibition, that later traveled through Europe to various venues. The painting portrays women wearing long, colorfully patterned prayer shawls and traditional leggings of white deerskin. The men in the painting are portrayed with their hair tied in traditional knots of the pueblo style, and wearing silver concha belts at their waists.[4]

Collections

Vigil's work is in the Anne Forbes Collection at the Smithsonian Institution,[6] and the Museum of New Mexico.[7]

References
  1. Dunn, Dorothy (1953). Contemporary American Indian Painting. Washington DC: National Gallery of Art. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  2. King, Jeanne Snodgrass (1968). American Indian painters; a biographical directory. New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. p. 205.
  3. Bernstein, Bruce (1995). Modern by tradition : American Indian painting in the studio style. Internet Archive. Santa Fe, N.M. : Museum of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-89013-286-9.
  4. Broder, Patricia Janis (2013-12-10). Earth Songs, Moon Dreams: Paintings by American Indian Women. Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4668-5972-2.
  5. Langa, Helen (2017). American Women Artists, 1935-1970 : Gender, Culture, and Politics. London: Routledge. pp. 46, 51, 52. ISBN 9781351576765. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  6. "Anne Forbes collection - contents ยท SOVA". sova.si.edu. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
  7. Huston, Howard (27 June 1995). "Museum gets two donations of art". Santa Fe New Mexico. Retrieved 1 February 2021.


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