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Dad

Artist (American, Tuskegee-Navajo, born 1954)
Date2003 (printed 2013)
Mediumplatinum lambda print
DimensionsImage: 33 15/16 × 27 in. (86.2 × 68.6 cm)
Mat: 40 × 30 1/8 in. (101.6 × 76.5 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds from the Clinton King Purchase Award, 2014
Object number2014.3.1
DescriptionMan at center of composition is wearing U.S. Army uniform including cap and warm boots, standing on a small patch of ground. Background area is white and at his left and right are black-and-white line drawings: at left is a man wearing a large hat and astride a burro or horse; at right is a round structure with smoke coming out of the top. At the left and right of his feet are curved forms with triangles.
Text Entries
This portrait of the artist’s father was made using an old photograph of him in military uniform as a starting point. By adding excerpts from his own artwork, she adds the role of artist to his identity of soldier and father. His pictures tell us more, the smoking Hogan a symbol of his Navajo heritage, and the mule rider a reminder of his time at the Fort Apache boarding school. A string of little arrow tips look almost like laurel branches at his feet, echoing his artistic style but also honoring him.

Per the artist, this is a “platinum lambda print” printed on Kodak Professional Paper.

 

The subject of the photograph is the artist’s father, Andrew Tsinajinnie (1918-2000), a Navajo born in Arizona who came to New Mexico to study painting with Dorothy Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School (now IAIA). Tsinajinnie served in the Pacific during World War II and returned to Arizona. He was well known as an artist, especially for his colorful images of Navajo ceremonial life. In 1991 he was named an Arizona Living Treasure. The artist chose to portray him using an undated photograph in which he appears in his Army uniform, because of the pride he took in his military service. She incorporates excerpts from some of his sketches in the composition – adding his identity as an artist to this portrait. Mr. Tsinajinnie (the spelling of whose name differs from that of his children) had about a dozen works in the museum’s collection until they were transferred to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

 

In a 2013 e-mail message to Katherine Ware (see object file), art historian and curator Veronica Passalacqua verified details of this image: “Indeed, Andy was proud of his military service in the Pacific.  The other stylizations surrounding him are extracted from some of his other works and in some instances extrapolated by Hulleah.  The Mule Rider is from another piece, and part of a story about one of his many boarding school escapes from Fort Apache.  The smoking Hogan is something he used regularly as part of his signature in his works.  The arrow/leaf stylizations are a tribute to his work and the works of his peers painting in the distinctive style he learned under Dorothy Dunn.  The original portrait of her father is held by Hulleah and undated.”

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