Boy and His Friend (A Bird)

Harrison Begay

Boy and His Friend (A Bird), Paintings by Harrison Begay
  • Navajo painter
  • Begay_blue_bird_2_thumb
  • Begay_blue_bird_3_thumb
Marked Down $185.00
Gallery Price $385.00
Title
Boy and His Friend (A Bird)
Artist
Harrison Begay
Medium
Gouache on off-white paper board
Sight size
14" height X 9" width
Signed
"Harrison Begay" at lower right
Date of creation
Circa 1970
Condition
Excellent, shrink wrapped and matted.
Provenance
Consigned by a Wyoming collector AL, originally from a RG Munn auction in 1971.
Mat size
19" height X 13" width
About The Boy and His Friend (A Bird)

This simple composition presents a Navajo male in profile, his left arm reaching toward a small blue bird. Begay's stylized treatment of the clouds above and the plant life near his feet is strictly Begay's signature style.

Marked Down from $325 to $185

About Harrison Begay

Harrison Begay was born in 1917 and educated at various schools on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona. Santa Fe Indian School and at Phoenix Junior College. He served in the U. S. Army in World War II.

Harrison Begay has paintings included in the collections of the Southwest Museum in Pasadena California, the famed Philbrook Art Center, the Gilcrease Museum and the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona to name a few.

One of the best known Navajo painters, Begay's watercolors are known for their delightful colors as well as their charming detail and strong sense of design. Begay is a conservative traditional painter whose work depicts an idealized manner of every segment of Navajo life. In the 1950's Begay co-founded Tewa Enterprises in Santa Fe to sell silkscreen reproductions of his work. Allan Houser, Pop Chalee and Gerald Nailor also sold reproductions through Tewa Enterprises.

Begay was awarded the French Palmes d’Academiques in 1954 and has exhibited worldwide to include a solo exhibition in Japan in 1989. His work is cited in The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters by Patrick D. Lester, The St. James Guide to Native North American Artists, American Indian Painting by Dorothy Dunn, Southwest Indian Painting by Clara Lee Tanner, American Indian Painters by Oscar Jacobson and Jeanne D’Ucel plus another five plus books focused on Native American artists. Harrison Begay's work was included in the exhibit "Beautiful Resistance: Works on Paper from the Heard Museum Collection" May 22 - December. 2005.

Other Works By Harrison Begay:
  • Yei Be Chei Dancers, Paintings by Harrison Begay
  • Navajo Boy and Girl with Pets, Paintings by Harrison Begay
  • Leaping Faun, Paintings by Harrison Begay
  • Grey Donkey & Rider Below Arching Rainbow Deity, Paintings by Harrison Begay
Cultures

American Indian, Navajo

Medium

Paintings

Subject

Birds, Male, American Indians

Keywords

Harrison Begay, Navajo painter