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PROPERTY OF JILL AND ELIN ELISOFON
A NAVAJO SANDPAINTING RUG
Details
A NAVAJO SANDPAINTING RUG
finely and tightly woven of native handspun wool in natural and analine shades of ivory, brown, pale yellow, green, red, and tan, with a depiction of Mother Earth and Father Sky from the Shootingway Chant
Dimensions: 60½ x 55 in. (1.54 x 1.39 m.)
finely and tightly woven of native handspun wool in natural and analine shades of ivory, brown, pale yellow, green, red, and tan, with a depiction of Mother Earth and Father Sky from the Shootingway Chant
Dimensions: 60½ x 55 in. (1.54 x 1.39 m.)
Further details
This lot is accompanied by a Life magazine, issued August 3, 1942, in which Roslind Russell is posed before this sandpainting weaving for an article entitled, "The Girls of Hollywood." The photograph was taken by Eliot Elisofon, also featured in the magazine.
Describing a similar textile, Katherine Spencer Halpern writes: "The textile depicts two similar figures, diamond-shaped with short extended hands and feet and rounded heads with horns. In the grey (or sometimes blue) body of Mother Earth are the four sacred plants -- corn, beans, squash and tobacco. The black circle out of which the plants are growing represents the lake which filled the Emergence Place after the people came up with these plants from the underworlds. In the black body of Father Sky are four constellations and the Milky Way (shown by crossed lines across his chest). Both figures have on green and red jacklas ... [Leland C.] Wyman describes a similar picture: The Blue Earth at the south, wearing 'the turquoise dress of summer sky outlined with yellow pollen indicating fertility, sits on black mist held together by a rainbow.' The black night Sky at the north also has pollen hands and feet; it is outlined with white morning light, and sits on a cloud of blue mist bound with a rainbow. Both figures wear the pointed red Shootingway headdress with attached eagle and turkey-tail feathers and a mask (or face paint) of Sun's House stripes -- yellow on chin, blue, black and white on forehead. Horns marked with lightnings are attached to the side of their heads ... and a line of pollen (or white corn meal) connects their mouths ...," (Halpern in Wheelwright, 1982:n.p.).
Describing a similar textile, Katherine Spencer Halpern writes: "The textile depicts two similar figures, diamond-shaped with short extended hands and feet and rounded heads with horns. In the grey (or sometimes blue) body of Mother Earth are the four sacred plants -- corn, beans, squash and tobacco. The black circle out of which the plants are growing represents the lake which filled the Emergence Place after the people came up with these plants from the underworlds. In the black body of Father Sky are four constellations and the Milky Way (shown by crossed lines across his chest). Both figures have on green and red jacklas ... [Leland C.] Wyman describes a similar picture: The Blue Earth at the south, wearing 'the turquoise dress of summer sky outlined with yellow pollen indicating fertility, sits on black mist held together by a rainbow.' The black night Sky at the north also has pollen hands and feet; it is outlined with white morning light, and sits on a cloud of blue mist bound with a rainbow. Both figures wear the pointed red Shootingway headdress with attached eagle and turkey-tail feathers and a mask (or face paint) of Sun's House stripes -- yellow on chin, blue, black and white on forehead. Horns marked with lightnings are attached to the side of their heads ... and a line of pollen (or white corn meal) connects their mouths ...," (Halpern in Wheelwright, 1982:n.p.).