Before looking at the contemporary movement in Navajo folk art, we must look at the definition of folk art in general. Many people's image of American folk art goes back to pre-industrial ship figureheads, weather vanes, toys, samplers and hand-stitched quilts. The intention was more highly decorated objects of a utilitarian nature.

Sidney Janis, a noted dealer in modern art, after some self-debate, termed folk artists "self-taught" in his book, They Taught Themselves, which he wrote in 1942. Writers and critics in the field have called them "primitives," and in the Museum of Modern Art show in 1938, held in collaboration with the Grenoble Museum in France, they were widely known and admired because they were from the ordinary run of people, the populace. Oto Bihalji-Merin, the European authority, prefers to call them "masters" of "naive" art, in the sense of artists who display total candor of technique and intent. Others have labeled them "Sunday artists" which seems to derogate their seriousness; "amateur" suggests something less than first rate ability; "art of the common people" has an aura of political polemic. Other often used terms are "grassroots" art or "compulsive," "spontaneous" and "unconscious." These latter, though certainly expressing qualities inherent in this art, have the gloss of patronizing psychoanalysis.

After all this deliberation, folk art seems to be the most appropriate term. It represents the work of truly American folk who are generally unaware of and unaffected by the mainstream of professional art — its trained artists, trends, intentions, theories and developments.

Many people became aware of Navajo folk art through the book released in August 1994 titled The People Speak, Navajo Art by Chuck and Jan Rosenak. Historical recordings of Navajo folk art date to the 1870s when it was noted that simple mud toy figures were being made. Recognition of the contemporary movement began in the 1960s with artists like Charlie Willeto and Tom Yazzie. Tom Yazzie was noted for his fine woodcarvings depicting Navajo scenes such as a silversmith working or a Navajo woman weaving.

Charlie (Alfred) Walleto, and now his widow, Elizabeth Walleto Ignacio, and their sons, Robin and Harold, portray the most visionary, as well as spiritually challenging pieces in Navajo folk art today. Charlie started carving in 1961 and completed over four hundred pieces before he passed away in December 1964.

He carved figures of Navajo men and women as well as animals with a dream-like quality. He started bringing these figures to the trader in Nageezi who wasn't sure what to think of these fanciful carvings.

As an artist, he is absolutely compelled to represent these images through his artwork. Robin possesses great understanding of the wood and is an example of how the lines between folk art and fine art blur.

The opposite side of the Navajo folk art spectrum is represented by a young artist named Delbert Buck. Carving since he was eleven years old, he turns the Navajo sense of humor inside out in his representations of Navajo women riding ostriches, cats riding mice, and frogs donning top hats and cigarette holders. His cottonwood carvings are chiseled with the simplest of tools and then painted in any color imaginable. His compositions are truly original as he plays with his audience's stereotypes of Navajo stoicism.

Robin has brought us some of the most beautiful and frightening-to-the-point-of-sublime carvings we have witnessed in this movement. His carvings are often inspired by nightmares of "skinwalkers," transformational animals, and witch spirits.

As an artist, he is absolutely compelled to represent these images through his artwork. Robin possesses great understanding of the wood and is an example of how the lines between folk art and fine art blur.

The opposite side of the Navajo folk art spectrum is represented by a young artist named Delbert Buck. Carving since he was eleven years old, he turns the Navajo sense of humor inside out in his representations of Navajo women riding ostriches, cats riding mice, and frogs donning top hats and cigarette holders. His cottonwood carvings are chiseled with the simplest of tools and then painted in any color imaginable. His compositions are truly original as he plays with his audience's stereotypes of Navajo stoicism.

Weighing in on the other end of the age spectrum is Mamie Deschille. Inspired by the young students' art in the local Headstart program, Mamie took found items of cardboard, scrap material, beads, yarn and sequins and created her "cardboards." These figures of striped elephants, sequined giraffes with earrings, and Navajo families replete in velvet clothes, exemplify the honest expression of Mamie's vision through found materials. Mamie and Elsie Benally are responsible for a renaissance in Navajo mud toys. In 1983, a Farmington trader named Jack Beasley asked these women to bring in something from their childhood. Independent of each other, they fashioned and brought in mud toys: simple, unfired, painted mud figures. Elsie and her daughters, Christine McRay and Orlinda Yazzie, started making horses with riders and mud sheep wrapped in wool and have since branched out to wilder beasts such as alligator riders and steers wrapped in velveteen.

A discussion about Navajo folk art would be incomplete without mentioning chickens . . . those crazy chickens! The Herbert family has been largely responsible for an unimaginable menagerie of animals. The father, Woody Herbert, started carving Brahma bulls, ravens and horses in the mid-1980s. His legacy is carried on by his talented children, their husbands, wives and children. Wilford and Lulu Herbert Yazzie are probably best known for their chickens and ravens. Edith Herbert John's work is best recognized in her chickens, owls and pigs. Their brother, Leslie, has demonstrated the greatest variety, carving everything from turkeys to skunks to large coyote families.

Many more artists exist in this movement and our pleasure is watching the constant and rapid innovation in the Navajo folk art. As with other forms of Native American art, it brings great pleasure to the owner. Perhaps its best contribution is the laughter and smiles it inspires while it pushes you to look deeper into the Navajo viewpoint.

By Georgiana Kennedy Simpson, with thanks to the Indian Arts & Crafts Association

Originally appeared in
The Wingspread Collector’s Guide to Albuquerque - Volume 11