Description:
Watercolor on paper. Signed l.r.: Jose Rey Toledo Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico 40, Stamped u.r.: PLANCHE 59.
From: American Indian Painters, Vol. 2, p. 9: On a sparkling Colorado day in the late summer, I received a letter from my friend, Jose, informing me that he was sending -- by registered airmail -- some sacred pollen and eagle feathers, and would I please drive up to the cliffs towering above Iceberg Lake on such and such a day, and there perform a sacred rite just as the sun came up over the horizon in the far East. "You see, it is my wedding morning, and I know that my adopted father cannot be present in my pueblo of Jemez on that day, so will he please perform this ceremony to the gods for me?" Minute instructions about the ritual followed as all must be done just right, and, as on after-thought -- "Perhaps you could get Garcia, my Indian friend, to go along to see that everything is done right." We complied, and some early travellers crossing the Trail Ridge in the lofty Rocky Mountains National Park, stopped to listen to the strange phenomenon of sacred Indian chants from the highest ridge above the frozen lake, as the sun rose. It was an expression of an Indian artist's friendship. A year before I had been able to give Jose some instruction and encouragement in art. It was evident that here was a rare talent although as yet undeveloped. At that time, he was working as a salesman and handyman at an Indian Trading Post and had little time for creative work, but he utilized all precious moments. The next season he did not return. The elders did not approve of his drifting away from the environment of the Pueblo, and from the traditions and ideals of the tribe. He settled down near his ancestral village to eke out a living for a wife and family as they arrived on schedule. Jose Toledo was born in Jemez in 1915. He went to the Indian Vocational School at Albuquerque; later he was to have a year at the University of New Mexico. There he received no encouragement to develop his own Pueblo art. He developed very rapidly, and early exhibited his work at many important art museums in the United States. He is now considered one of the more important Indian artists of the Southwest. Jose won first prize in the Pueblo group at Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, in 1947, for his "Dancing Spirits". "The Pine Tree Ceremonial" is a very important painting by Toledo, showing one of the numerous religious ceremonies which are performed throughout the year. In this painting, the predominant colors are cool in harmony. (Collection, University of Oklahoma)