Pueblo Dancer c. 1917 - 1920

This is Awa Tsireh’s watercolor painting of a Pueblo Dancer. Note the striking juxtaposition between the figure and the flatness of the image, achieved through the use of simplified forms and a minimal palette. The dancer is depicted in profile, adorned with symbolic objects and motifs, each element rendered with careful attention to line and shape. The artist uses color to distinguish between the dancer's garb, the ochre of the shirt contrasting with the white kilt, all set against the unmodulated ground. Tsireh employs these elements to convey not just the visual appearance of the dance, but also to engage with the deeper cultural and spiritual meanings embedded within the performance. In this work, Tsireh is not just representing a dance, but also preserving and reinterpreting cultural memory through the visual language of modern painting. Through this painting, Tsireh provides a lens through which we can view the interplay between tradition and innovation.