Alice Asmar

Shalako Dancer, Native American Indian Lithograph California Woman Artist

1980

American contemporary artist of Lebanese and Greek descent, Alice Asmar's art is often inspired by her love of nature, combined with a deep respect for native American culture, her work evolved into Southwestern themes of Indian Ceremonial Dance-Dramas, Indian portraits and landscapes.In 1991, Alice Asmar was chosen for prestigious Honorary Membership in the National League of American Pen Women. Only three such honors are given each year. This recognition reaches back to her childhood, Alice Asmar was considered a child prodigy, winning awards and recognition for her artwork before the age of 10. Her education from 1946 through 1959 included a BA magna cum laude, from Lewis and Clark College, Portland; an MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle; and a one-year fellowship to study at L'Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France. Born in Flint, Michigan of Lebanese and Greek descent. Her parents moved to Portland, Oregon when she was just a baby. The artwork of her early years was inspired by the splendors of nature, from the inscrutable pines and ancient sculptured rocks along the Oregon Coast to the mysterious ocean mists. She Graduated magna cum laude from Lewis and Clark College in Portland and Obtained her Master's of Fine Arts Degree at The University of Washington in Seattle. Soon after graduating she accepted a job as an engineering drafter at Boeing Aircraft in Seattle. Her Assignment was clearing top secret drawing for air-to-ground missile. Alice worked for Boeing for less than a year. They offered her an engineering scholarship but she decided to go back to the art she loved doing from she was a child. After studying and traveling throughout the Near East, France, Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Turkey, The Greek Islands, Greece and Lebanon, Asmar set up studios in California, New Mexico and Oregon. A master of many media, Asmar is distinguished for her many techniques which include paintings in Oil, casein and Acrylic, drawing in ink, pencil and pastel, collage, tapestry, books,American contemporary artist of Lebanese and Greek descent, Alice Asmar's art is often inspired by her love of nature, combined with a deep respect for native American culture, her work evolved into Southwestern themes of Indian Ceremonial Dance-Dramas, Indian portraits and landscapes. Prints including lithography, etching, Engraving on metal on plexiglas, portraits, murals and banners. Her hand engraving of innovative designs for dinner and household wares for Nambe Mills in Santa Fe is recognized internationally. Alice Asmar's works are in several hundred public and private collections in the United States and Europe, including the Smithsonian Institution, Franklin Mint, Portland Art Museum, Gene Autry Hotel in Palm Springs, Security Pacific International Bank of New York, The Public Art Museum of Gabrova, Bulgaria, kaiser-Permanente, and the Dr. Nicholas Townell collection in Angus, Scotland. Studied with Edward Melcarth & Archipenko, University of Washington, MFA. Work: National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institute, Washington. Los Angeles City-Scape at sunset (Mural), Commissioned by Dr. Walter jayasinghe, 66; Painting of doves, Bangs Manufacturing Co, Burbank Exhibitions: Seattle Art Museum. Museum of Science & Industry, Los Angeles. Circle Gallery Ltd, Houston, Abbot Hall Gallery, William Temple House, Portland Oregon. Nambe Mills, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Sr Eye Art Gallery, Long Beach. Descanso Gardens, La Canada Flintridge, California.Sun Cities Art Museum, Arizona. Audubon Art Exhibit, Portland Oregon.Walt Disney Art...

This listing is for the one Silkscreen serigraph piece listed here. Mexico City, 1945. First edition. plate signed, limited edition of 1000, these serigraph plates depict various types of traditional and folk art indigenous clothing...

Deer Dance, painting by Tonita Pena, Santa Fe, Cochiti, Pueblo, male, female Tonita Peña (born 1893 in San Ildefonso, died 1949 in Kewa Pueblo, New Mexico) was born as Quah Ah (meaning white coral beads) but also used the name Tonita Vigil Peña and María Antonia Tonita Peña. Peña was a renowned Pueblo artist, specializing in pen and ink on paper embellished with watercolor. She was a well-known and influential Native American artist and art teacher of the early 1920s and 1930s. Tonita Peña was born on May 10, 1893, at San Ildefonso Pueblo, to Ascensión Vigil Peña and Natividad Peña of San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. When she was 12, her mother and younger sister died, as a result of complications due to the flu. Her father was unable to care for her and she was taken to Cochití Pueblo and was brought up by her aunt Martina Vigil Montoya, a prominent Cochití Pueblo potter. Peña attended St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe. Edgar Lee Hewett, an anthropologist involved in supervising the nearby Frijoles Canyon excavations (now Bandelier National Monument) was instrumental in developing the careers of several San Ildefonso “self-taught” artists including Tonita Peña. Hewett purchased Peña's paintings for the Museum of New Mexico and supplied her with quality paint and paper. Peña began gaining more notoriety by the end of the 1910s selling an increasing amount of her work to collectors and the La Fonda Hotel. Much of this early work was done of Pueblo cultural subject matter, in a style inspired by historic Native American works, however, her use of an artist's easel and Western painting mediums gained her acceptance among her European-American contemporaries in the art world. At the age of 25, she exhibited her work at museums and galleries in the Santa Fe and Albuquerque area. In the early 1920s, Tonita did not know how much her painting sold for at the Museum of New Mexico, so she wrote letters to the administrators because a local farmer was worried that she got paid too little. In the 1930s Peña was an instructor at the Santa Fe Indian School and at the Albuquerque Indian School and the only woman painter of the San Ildefonso Self-Taught Group, which included such noted artists as Alfonso Roybal, Julian Martinez, Abel Sánchez (Oqwa Pi), Crecencio Martinez, and Encarnación Peña. As children, these artists attended San Ildefonso day school which was part of the institution of the Dawes Act of 1887, designed to indoctrinate and assimilate Native American children into mainstream American society. In 1931, Tonita Peña exhibited at the Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts which was presented at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York City. Works from this exhibition were shown at the 1932 Venice Biennial. That year is the only time Native American artists have shown in the official United States pavilion at that biennial, and Tonita Peña's paintings were part of that exhibition.[1 Her painting Basket Dance, that had shown in the Venice Biennial was acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York for $225. This was the highest price paid up to this time for a Pueblo painting...

Drypoint on paper by famous Taos Artist Gene Kloss (1903-1996). Titled: “Pueblo Dancer.” Pencil signed lower right and in excellent condition. Image measures: 8" H x 6" W. Sheet size...