"Celestial #1" (Taiyin Snowflower), from the Dartmouth Pow-Wow Suite
Mateo Romero, Cochiti Pueblo / American, born 1966
Cochiti Pueblo (Kotyete)
Southwest
2009
Photo transfer and acrylic paint on panel
Panel: 60 × 40 in. (152.4 × 101.6 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Mrs. Harvey P. Hood W'18 Fund
2010.53.2
Geography
Place Made: Cochití Pueblo, United States, North America
Period
21st century
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Native American
Painting
Native American: Southwest
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed, upper right, on canvas: Mateo Romero
Label
Mateo Romero’s overpainted photograph celebrates a modern Native woman who dances not for tourists, but for her own and other Native lives, in a modern Indian context at the Dartmouth Pow-Wow. It was with tremendous joy and energy that we created these portraits of current Dartmouth students and alumni. . . . Photographic images were selected, enlarged, transferred to panel, and painted on with acrylic. . . . There is a palpable tension between figure and ground . . . portraiture, and the nostalgic quality of action painting. . . . In the Tewa Pueblos . . . dancers entering the houses of their relatives say . . . We Dance for Life. . . . My hope is that the works transcend the limits of ethnic culture and address the audience on a human level. —Mateo Romero From the 2019 exhibition Portrait of the Artist as an Indian / Portrait of the Indian as an Artist, guest curated by Rayna Green
Course History
NAS 30.1, ARTH 17, Modern Native American Art History, Joyce Szabo, Summer 2013
Exhibition History
Mateo Romero: The Dartmouth Pow-Wow Suite, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 27, 2011-January 15, 2012.
Portrait of the Artist as an Indian / Portrait of the Indian as an Artist, Harteveldt Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-July 15, 2019.
Provenance
Ten Portraits Comissioned by the Hood Museum of Art for the exhibition, Native American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, 2009.
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