Sculpture from the Collection of George Terasaki
Sculpture from the Collection of George Terasaki
HOPI FIGURE
Auction Closed
November 19, 09:20 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
HOPI FIGURE
Depicting Tasavu
Circa 1880-1900
Height: 11 ⅜ in (29 cm)
Cottonwood, pigments, squirrel fur, tanned hide, fiber, turquoise
The turquoise pendant with an attached paper label inscribed in black ink: "Navajo Medicine Man Altar Idol-Little Fire Society/Zuni 1908 collected 24069 # Oct"
George Terasaki, New York, acquired in the 1970s
Andrea Portago and Barton Wright, Classic Hopi and Zuni Kachina Figures, Santa Fe, 2006, pl. 15 and p. 133
Alexandra Pascassio and George Terasaki, Kachina: George Terasaki Collection, Paris, 2008, n.p., cat. no. 10
This figure depicts Tasavu, not a kachina but rather a clown who appears as a caricature of the Navajo, the Hopi's neighbors. Wright notes that "when [Tasavu] appears it behaves in ways that present the worst attributes of the Navajo to the great amusement of the Hopi audience at the dance." (Wright in Portago and Wright, Classic Hopi and Zuni Kachina Figures, Santa Fe, 2006, p. 133).