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“Clouds-Lightning”, a rare original Michael Kabotie
Hopi mixed media on paper drawing of stylized ancient Hopi Kiva mural designs and symbols, 2001
Ex: Heard Museum Indian Fair, Phoenix, AZ
Hopi Artist, Michael Kabotie (1942-2009) was a national artistic treasure and the direct heir to one of the greatest legacies in all of Southwestern Native Art. His distinguished artist and educator father, Fred Kabotie (1900-1986), was and is nothing less than a legend in his own time and beyond, as an artist and co-founder of the Hopi Arts and Crafts Guild. As an educator and cultural ambassador, Fred Kabotie was a giant; renowned across the country and around the world for his exceptional artistry and cultural contributions.
This is the artistic and cultural environment Michael was raised in. As a young man, Michael was entranced by
the extraordinary prehistoric Hopi Kiva murals his Father had helped a Harvard University Archaeological
Expedition uncover and decipher in the ancient ruins of the prehistoric Hopi villages of Awatovi and Kawaiika-a in
the late 1930’s and in later years Michael would spend a substantial part of his artistic career interpreting
and re-interpreting these ancient murals in his various drawings, paintings and jewelry pieces.
Above center and below left and right, a Michael Kabotie silver "triple-overlay" style cuff bracelet c. 2001 depicting some ancient Hopi mural designs. Above right, Michael Kabotie discussing one of his Awatovi mural paintings, c. 2001. At below center, a color plate from The Peabody Museum's Harvard University Awatovi Expedition Report with a detailed reproduction of one of the ancient Awatovi kiva murals.
Above right photo source and © Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff. Below center photo source and © The Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
This beautiful mixed media drawing from 2001 is a perfect case in point. Entitled "Clouds-Lightning" by the artist, this drawing is is a stylized, somewhat abstracted presentation and interpretation of some of the ancient Kiva mural designs at Awatovi and it uses various elements and symbols of clouds and rain, lightning storms and fertility and corn fields and other Hopi symbols and concepts relating to life-giving rain, fertility, crops and human survival in the harsh desert Southwest. The drawing is mixed media on white artist’s paper, done in a lovely, high-keyed color palette using a combination of graphite, colored pencil, colored felt tip pen and possibly black India ink.
The drawing itself measures 8” in height and it is 5” in width and the framed dimensions are 14” in height by 11” in width and 2” in depth. The drawing has been very recently and most beautifully framed in a custom made hand-carved beveled light maple wood frame to the highest archival conservation standards under TruVue UV-Resistant “Museum” conservation glass by Santa Fe’s premier Fine Arts framers, Goldleaf Framemakers of Santa Fe.
Michael Kabotie, c. 2004, wearing one of the six silver panels
of his reconstruction of an ancient Awatovi Hopi kiva decorated with kiva murals entitled “The Silver Room of Awatovi”.
Photo source and © "Totems to Turquoise" by Lois Dubin and Peter Whiteley, Harry Abrams New York in association with The American Museum of Natural History, pp. 176.
Both drawing and frame are in excellent original condition. The drawing is properly signed “Lomaywywesa”, Michael Kabotie’s Hopi name, which translates to “Walking in Harmony”, in pencil in his customary cursive signature at the lower right and is dated “01”. It is also titled and inscribed on the verso in pencil in Michael Kabotie’s cursive hand
as follows: “Clouds-Lightning” and “Prisma-color-ink/pencils” and price $200.00”. The drawing has a very nice provenance. It was originally sold in 2001 by Michael at The Heard Museum’s Indian Fair in Phoenix, Arizona; a show
he exhibited at regularly, and it has an original Michael Kabotie artist card on the back.
Michael Kabotie’s various artworks; his drawings, paintings and jewelry pieces are all in extremely high demand
today in the marketplace. This demand has risen stratospherically since Michael's untimely death in 2009 due to rapidly increasing national and worldwide recognition of the exceptional quality, beauty and historic and cultural significance of his work.
This is a rare and unique opportunity to acquire a particularly fine piece of an exceptional artist’s work,
in excellent original condition, most beautifully framed and presented with an excellent provenance.
Hesitate here and, well, you know what could happen.
SOLD