Navajo Horses

A high sense of drama is conveyed. 

Wouldn't want to get between these two equines !

Navajo Horses is illustrated in full page color on page 77 of Patricia Broder's book published in 1981 by Abbeville Press American Indian Painting & Sculpture.

(1916-2000)  Born in Rough Rock, Arizona, Andrew Van Tsinahjinnie (Yazzie Bahe meaning Little Grey) had been drawing since he was a child.

He studied with Dorothy Dunn at the Studio and she said that he was one of the best artists there. Even before he went into the army in 1941, Tsinahjinnie had done murals in Indian Hospitals. After the service he studied at the Oakland College of Arts and Crafts in California. His life has been devoted to painting the old ways of the Navajos and the way they dressed.

Since 1977 he suffered with a serious illness and had not been able to do much painting or teaching, but he kept his love of the old ways. Tsinahjinnie grew up herding sheep and riding horses and his love for that life was what he wanted to portray in his paintings. He was married to Minnie McGirt and they had seven children.

Designated an Arizona Living Treasure, this fine artist has work included in the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum:the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona; the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Arizona; the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa; the Millicent Rogers Foundation Museum in Taos, New Mexico; the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC and the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian Art in Santa Fe--just to name a few.