Description:
Watercolor on paper. Signed l.r.: Kuperu '46, Stamped u.r.: PLANCHE 58.
From: American Indian Painters, Vol. 2, p. 9: He had delicate and refined features. His face was a little pale and showed signs of suffering but of calm resignation. He had been sitting propped up against the wall of his pueblo home for two years with a broken back, after having been thrown from a horse. This infirmity probably made an artist of Ku-Pe-Ru. It is probably also responsible for the delicacy and tenderness as well as the suavity and grace in his work. Without the least resemblance, Suina's work somehow recalls to mind the painting of the pious old Siennese masters of 1300. Ku-Pe-Ru was born in 1917 in Cochiti. To pass the long days during his terrible infirmity, he began painting in 1936, having been encouraged by white friends, who furnished him with paints. This gave him courage, and he was sufficiently recovered so that, in 1938, he enrolled at the Indian School in Santa Fe and studied art under Geronima Montoya. He graduated from the school in 1942. He enlisted in February 1942 and served for thirty-eight months in the South Pacific theatre of war, taking part in many of the major campaigns and winning decorations He returned in 1945 and has resumed his creative work in art. The dear little girl in the "Girl Harvest Dancer" has the same delicacy and charm, the same simple piety and devotion as the angels and madonnas in Simone Martini or Duccio but is much more alive and youthful than they. The technique of Ku-Pe-Ru is precise and sure but without bravura. The colors are harmonious, but much more varied and interesting than those of the old masters of central Italy. His paintings have been shown in many of the larger museums and art galleries of the country. I believe even greater work from him may be expected. (Collection, Oscar Brousee Jacobson) Map references: Cochiti Pueblo (N.M.)