Pablita Velarde – “Tse Tsan” (Golden Dawn) – Tewa Painter 1918 – 2006

Born at Santa Clara Pueblo in 1918, Pablita Velarde was the first female student to study under Dorothy Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School. After her enrollment in 1932,  Pablita’s classmates included Allan Houser, Karl Gorman, Fred Kabotie, Narcisco Abeyta, Ben Quintana, Harrison Begay, Joe H. Herrera, Quincy Tahoma, Andy Tsihnajinnie, Eva Mirabel, Tonita Lujan, Pop Chalee, Oscar Howe, and Geronima Cruz Montoya.  Many of these individuals became iconic Native artists, but it was Allan Houser and Pablita Velarde who had the strongest impact on the art world over their long careers.  As a 16 year old, Pablita painted a mural for the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair.  She was the W.P.A. artist in residence during the construction of Bandelier National Monument.  Winning virtually every Native art award, many times over, she has had a place in most major Native museum shows and private collections in America. In 1953, she was the first woman to receive the Grand Purchase Award at the Philbrook Museum of Art’s Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Painting. The French government honored her with the 1954 Palmes Académiques for excellence in art. In 1959 her book Old Father Story Teller made her the first Pueblo woman to be published. Widely recognized by collectors and museums alike as the most important Native female painter, she painted up to her death in 2006. Without question, she is one of the most culturally significant female painters born in America in the last 100 years.