The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 17, 2025

Horizontally oriented watercolor painting of seven, identical stylized people with medium-light skin tones arcing across off-white paper. They have black bob hairstyles with "X" shaped headdresses. Their eyes and mouth are shaped as white circles from which extends a line on either side, outlined in black. They wear yellow and black shirts and stockings, white skirts with geometric patterns on one side, and fern-like foliage around their necks and in their left hands.

Seven Dance Figures

1930s

Oqwa Pi (Abel Sanchez)

(San Ildefonso Pueblo, 1899–1971)
America, Native North American, Southwest, New Mexico, Pueblo, San Ildefonso, Early 20th century
watercolor
Matted: 38.9 x 57.5 cm (15 5/16 x 22 5/8 in.)
Gift of Amelia Elizabeth White 1937.929
Location: Not on view

Description

This highly stylized image of dancers posed against a blank background was painted by Oqwa Pi (Red Cloud). Also known as Abel Sanchez, he was key to a major development in the Indigenous arts of the Southwest, when Native artists took control of interpreting and representing their cultures through the medium of watercolor. These artists drew their subject matter from the nonsacred parts of Indigenous ceremonies as well as traditional ceramic and mural imagery. Oqwa Pi was also a politician, serving the San Ildefonso Pueblo as governor for six terms.
  • Crawford, Virginia. “American Indian Painting.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 1 (January 1982): 3–17. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 10-11, fig. 12 www.jstor.org
  • Native North American Textiles. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 14, 2024-December 14, 2025).
    CMA 1982: North American Indian Watercolors, January 12-April 11. 1982, no catalogue
  • {{cite web|title=Seven Dance Figures|url=false|author=Oqwa Pi (Abel Sanchez)|year=1930s|access-date=17 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1937.929