VILLASENOR, DAVID (EDITED BY VINSON BROWN)

Tapestries in Sand the Spirit of Indian Sandpainting

Healdsburg, CA: Naturegraph Company, 1963. 1st Edition; 1st Printing. Paperback. B&W and Color Illustrations; Signed by the author. This is a trade sized paperback book. The book is in Very Good+ condition and was issued without a dust jacket. The book covers have some light bumping, rubbing, and one small tear to the bottom front spine joint. The text pages are clean and bright. This copy has been signed by the author, with a short inscription by the author. "Born in Guadalajara to Indian and Spanish parents, he spent his early and troubled years in a Boy’s Town-type school in Sonora. When he was 16 he came to the United States, where he lived with the Navajos in Santa Fe, N. M. There he learned the mechanics and spiritual symbolism of sand painting. His work was seen by Ernest Thompson Seton, the naturalist and artist who helped found the Boy Scouts of America. Seton asked if Villasenor would help teach other boys to design in the sand. Seton placed the young Villasenor in his College of Indian Wisdom in Santa Fe, where the young artist taught in exchange for room and board. Drafted into the Army in World War II, Villasenor was used to make medical sculptures and moulages--direct impressions from living tissue. After the war the Natural History Museum of New York gave him a commission for 20 sand paintings, a ritual art traditionally done on the ground with most lasting but a single day. Villasenor learned to mount them permanently and 10 of the 20 were later purchased by the Southwest Museum near downtown Los Angeles. The rest were sold to the Neiman-Marcus store in Dallas. His later work was displayed throughout the West, while two of his 12-foot, 600-pound Aztec calendars are shown permanently at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and the Plaza de la Raza in Lincoln Park. One of his last works was a 10-foot-high figure of the Indian Chief Sequoyah, which he gave to the Cherokee Nation." (Los Angeles Times) ; Signed by Author. Very Good+ .

S. Howlett-West BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 39325

Catalogue: Native American Art

Keywords: Native American Art David Villasenor Vinson Brown Signed Edition Sand Art Navaho Art Sandpainting Western Americana Native American art

VILLASENOR, DAVID (PREFACE BY VINSON BROWN)

Tapestries in Sand the Spirit of Indian Sandpainting

Healdsburg, CA: Naturegraph Pub, 1966. Revised Edition. Paperback. ISBN: 091101022X. B&W and Color Illustrations; This is a trade paperback. The book is in Very Good+ condition and was issued without a dust jacket. The book and its contents are in clean, bright condition. There is some light generalized toning to the white portions of the book covers. The text pages are generally clean and bright, however there is spotting to the bottom edge of the first two text pages. "In the sandpainting of southwestern Native Americans (the most famous of which are the Navajo , the Medicine Man (or Hatalii) paints loosely upon the ground of a hogan, where the ceremony takes place, or on a buckskin or cloth tarpaulin, by letting the coloured sands flow through his fingers with control and skill. There are 600 to 1,000 different traditional designs for sandpaintings known to the Navajo. They do not view the paintings as static objects, but as spiritual, living beings to be treated with great respect. More than 30 different sandpaintings may be associated with one ceremony. " (from Wikipedia). Very Good+ .

S. Howlett-West BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 45515

Catalogue: Native American Art

Keywords: 091101022X Native American Art David Villasenor Vinson Brown Sandpainting Native Americans Indian Myths And Legends Religion Spirituality