Screen Print

Early artist proof silk screen print of two women carrying jugs of water designed by John Nieto and printed by Angus Davis in his studio in Sante Fe, NM in Spring 1981.

John Nieto calls himself an American artist who paints Indians, not an Indian artist. He does not attempt to be authentic, but to show a core Native spirit. His Indians seem to belong to a universal tribe that suggest a common, Far Eastern origin, and connection with a contemporary group. Early this century, Indian artists were cultivated in a white man's school and encouraged to portray ancestral and reservation experiences. Art from that period was inauthentic and oblivious to world trends. Since mid-century, Indian-born artists began to tell a bitter truth of Indian pain from alcoholism and other social problems. John Nieto belongs to neither camp. His Indians are not idealized or troubled. They are potters, warriors, silversmiths or shamans in traditional garb, as well as indigenous wildlife, painted in brilliant, oddly paired colors and radiating a quiet dignity. His unfettered use of brilliant colors has been likened to the Fauves of the 1920s' French movement. Nieto has spent time in Paris and also seems to be influenced by European expressionists who released the subconscious onto canvases. He also uses painting techniques and a spiritual awareness from the Far East. John Nieto lives and works in Corrales, New Mexico, on the banks of the Rio Grande River. His roots run deep in the state of his birth, with ancestors going back more than 300 years.

H 36 in. x W 30.25 in. x D 1 in.