JPG

Pablita Velarde (1918-2006) or Tse Tsa (meaning Golden Dawn in her native language, Tewa) was born in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico in. She is recognized as one of the great Native American artists. At the age of fourteen, She became the first full-time female art student at the Santa Fe Indian School. She is regarded as a pioneer artist of her age, because, as she explained in a 1979 interview, "Painting was not considered women's work in my time. A woman was supposed to be just a woman, like a housewife and a mother and chief cook. Those were things I wasn't interested in."

In 1939, Velarde was commissioned by the National Parks Service under a grant from the WPA (Works Progress Administration) to depict scenes of traditional Pueblo life for visitors to the Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico (1939-1948).

Following her work at Bandelier, Velarde went on to become one of the most accomplished Native American painters of her generation, with solo exhibitions throughout the United States, including New Mexico, Florida and California. 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. In 1954 the French government honored her with the Palmes Academique award for excellence in art.

Velarde's work is exhibited in public and private collections including the Museum of New Mexico, the Bandelier National Monument museum, the Avery Collection at the Arizona State Museum, the Ruth and Charles Elkus Collection of Native American Art, and in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History