Conversations with Remarkable Native Americans

9. Tony Abeyta, painter and sculptor

CHAPTER NINE Tony Abeyta, painter and sculptor Tony Abeyta (Navajo) is a gifted artist whose serenity and self-confidence are remarkable . There is something of the Navajo quest for harmony, wholeness (hozho), in his approach to life. Modesty and ambition are reconciled in the way he likes to present himself. And he asserts his Navajo identity as strongly as his desire to belong to the global art scene. His life is a success story. He is discreet concerning the obstacles he may have encountered occasionally as an artist. He likes to say that, whenever the future looked uncertain, something came up that allowed him to find new collectors, new opportunities to exhibit his works, new possibilities to travel, explore the world, and enrich his artistic experience. This interview took place in Paris on June 6, 2009, the sixty-fifth anniversary of D-Day. As we were talking, President Obama and his family were being driven to Notre Dame Cathedral. Tony Abeyta remembered that his father, during the war, was among a group of code talkers. He had suffered shell shock and had a difficult time recovering from it.1 Joëlle Rostkowski: How do you like to define yourself? Tony Abeyta: I define myself as a contemporary Native American artist. I don’t define myself as a traditional person. I was born and raised in an urban setting, in Gallup. My father, Narciso Abeyta, came from the Navajo reservation, where he lived until the age of sixteen. He was a well-known and respected painter, often presented as a disciple of Dorothy Dunn—the famous Native American Indian art teacher—and part of the easel movement that developed in Santa Fe before the Second World War. After returning from the war in the South Pacific, and trying to recover from shell shock, he stopped painting for ten years. 57 58 CONVERSATIONS WITH REMARKABLE NATIVE AMERICANS As for my mother, she was Anglo, coming from a Quaker family. She was also an artist, working with ceramics, and she was a good weaver, having learned Navajo traditional skills. JR: Looking back at your childhood, thinking of your dreams and comparing them with the present reality, do you think that having parents who were artists led you to become a painter and do you feel that you have accomplished your childhood dreams? TA: I was brought up in a very creative and artistic atmosphere but, as a teenager, I remember that I rather dreamt of becoming a filmmaker or an architect. I had the opportunity to study at the IAIA, Institute of American Indian Arts, founded in Santa Fe in the 1960s. It was a wonderful institution, intertribal, offering training in various artistic fields and it was totally free. I got a grant from the Navajo tribe and I remember that the IAIA provided everything we needed: paint, brush, lodging, etc. At the IAIA I met Indians from all over the country and some of the painters that have become famous since then. Allan Houser, the famous Apache sculptor, was teaching there. Darren Vigil Gray, another Apache artist, had just graduated. There was a free spirit of creativity and cooperation. I am part of a very creative Native American artistic movement, encouraged by IAIA that has trained and promoted David Bradley, Emmi Whitehorse, Jaune Quick to See Smith. I considered going to the Rhode Island School of Design but I finally decided to go to the Maryland Institute College of Arts in Baltimore. Meanwhile, I was already selling paintings. I remember the first painting I sold, at the age of eighteen. Tony Abeyta (Photo by Nicolas Rostkowski) TONY ABEYTA 59 I also clearly remember that it was in 1985—I was not twenty years old yet— when I attended an exhibition at the Fine Arts Museum in Santa Fe that I found my way. I then saw all the promising and already confirmed Native artists gathered in a splendid show: Allan Houser, R. C. Gorman, David Bradley, T. C. Cannon. I wanted to be like them. It was a critical moment for me. That’s when I decided that I wanted to be a painter. It was thrilling to be able to meet all those striking personalities. It was an ebullient atmosphere and there was more cooperation than competition. R. C. Gorman, as the most famous Navajo artist, was very generous with the younger...