Description:
Watercolor on paper. Signed l.r.: Kaisa Stamped u.r.: PLANCHE 57.
From: American Indian Painters, Vol. 2, pp. 8-9: It is difficult to imaging an Indian boy with the name of Percy. Most of the present generation of Indians have English or Spanish names as well as their own Indian names that are sometimes changed, certainly when they approach manhood. Among his cronies he is known as Tsesite; his grandfather, a painter of ceremonials at Zuni, called him Kaisa, and predicted that he would become an artist of note. He was given the name of Percy Sandy at the Santa Fe school. It is all very confusing. Percy signs himself Kaisa on his paintings. He was born in 1918, and enjoyed his childhood with his parents and two brothers. He attended a school at Black Rock, four miles from the Zuni village. It was there that he tried painting for the first time, astonishing his teachers by the quality of the results. He was immediately sent to do some murals for the school building and for the Black Rock Hospital. Thus was launched his art career. Later he went to the Albuquerque Indian School where he received formal art instruction. He was commissioned to illustrate a book by Ann Clark "Sun Journey". He has won several prizes at the Gallup All-Indian Fair and at Albuquerque and held a one man exhibit in Los Angeles in 1947. Indians often marry very young and, nowadays, often outside their own tribe. Kaiser married one of the Miracle girls and moved to Taos Pueblo, where he divides his time between painting and farming. Kaiser's "Scratching Deer" is well composed. In it he demonstrates his complete victory over his medium without fuss or worry. It is just a deer in its native habitat -- two or three yuccas in bloom and a couple of gray sage brushes most expertly handled -- simple, humorous and satisfying. (Collection, Oscar Brousse Jacobson)