The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 13, 2025
Koshare Contest
c. 1920s
(San Ildefonso Pueblo, 1895–1955)
(San Ildefonso Pueblo, 1879–1943)
Page: 57.5 x 36.5 cm (22 5/8 x 14 3/8 in.)
Educational Purchase Fund 1928.314
Location: Not on view
Description
This painting depicts the pole climb that occurs every year during the San Gerónimo Feast Day in Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. The striped characters clambering up the pole toward a treasure are koshare (co-shar-eh), the sacred clowns of Pueblo religion. Like European American clowns, koshare provide comic entertainment, but they are much more complex. For instance, they behave in exaggerated ways that turn social norms upside down, thus highlighting and reinforcing the norms.- Purchased from The Spanish and Indian Trading Co., Santa Fe, N.M.
- Crawford, Virginia. “American Indian Painting.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 1 (January 1982): 3–17. Reproduced: Cover; Mentioned: p. 10 www.jstor.orgMikolic, Amanda. Celebrating Ceremony: Native American Drawings Now on View. Cleveland Museum of Art Thinker Blog on Medium. November 29, 2019. medium.com
- Gallery 231 - Native North American Works on Paper Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 2, 2019-August 21, 2020).CMA 1982: North American Indian Watercolors, January 12-April 11. 1982, no catalogue
- {{cite web|title=Koshare Contest|url=false|author=Awa Tsireh (Alfonso Roybal), Julian Martinez|year=c. 1920s|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1928.314