Description:
Watercolor on paper. Signed l.r.: P'otsunu '42, Stamped u.r.: PLANCHE 48
From: American Indian Painters, Vol. 2, p. 7: Geronima Cruz-Montoya was born in San Juan, not far from Santa Fe, in 1915. At the Indian school in Santa Fe, she received her instruction in art under the great teacher, Dorothy Dunn, whom she succeeded in 1935. While carrying on a full load of teaching in the day time, she attended night school at the Laboratory of Anthropo9logy. In summer she continued advanced work in this field. The little lady has had an interesting career and has been a fine influence in the renaissance of Indian art in the Southwest. As art teacher in the Indian school at Santa Fe, she has been instrumental in training many a young Indian artist. Ben Quintana, Eva Mirabal, Narcisco Abeyta, Joe Herrera, Theodore Suin, Harrison Begay, Ignacio Moquino, Percy Tsesite, and Quincy Tahoma were all her pupils at one time or another. The high point in her teaching career came when her pupil, Ben Quintana, won the $1,000 prize and a trip to New York in the national contest sponsored by the American Magazine. She entered ten of her students and all placed in something. There were over fifty-two thousand entries. Teaching is an exacting and exhausting profession. It leaves little time for creative work. Most of Geronima's time has been devoted to her talented pupils. Her production is therefore rather small and her works are rare. We had to search a long time to secure a suitable example for our University art collection, and Geronima, being an Indian, gave us no help whatsoever, in locating or showing any of her work. 'A Matchina Dance, Christmas", illustrated a half Christian, half pagan dance given at Christmas by many of the southwestern Pueblos who have been exposed to the religion of the Catholic padres for centuries. The composition of the painting is simple, but the color combinations are exquisite, and the action of the mitred figures most subtly rendered. (Collection, Oscar Brousse Jacobson) Map references: San Juan Pueblo (N.M.)