Description:

Harry Fonseca
(Nisenan/Maidu, 1946 - 2006)
Gold & Souls #31, 1972
mixed media and gold leaf on paper
signed and dated lower center: Fonseca 72

    Provenance:
  • The Artist
    Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
    Private Collection, New Mexico
  • Dimensions:
  • Sheet: 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm.), Frame: 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm.)
  • Artist Name:
  • Harry Fonseca
  • Exhibited:

  • The Discovery of Gold in California: Paintings by Harry Fonseca, Oakland Museum of California, 1998, Oakland, CA

    Exhibition text: The Gold Rush brought disastrous consequences to California Indians, especially Fonseca's Nisenan Maidu ancestors. Between 1846 and 1870 alone, the numbers of California Indians declined from 150,000 to 30,000 due to disease, starvation and outright murder. This series of paintings was created in the summer of 1997 when Fonseca, who currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, returned to his native California to address the subject of the Gold Rush in his art. Painting in the heart of Gold Country in the Sierra Nevada foothills, Fonseca created nearly 300 abstract landscapes, predominantly on paper, with other paintings on unstretched canvas. On several occasions, he set up a studio on the American River, footsteps away from the site where gold was discovered in Coloma some 149 years earlier.

    Fonseca's early works, painted in the late 1960s through the 1970s, illustrated aspects of traditional Maidu culture. The artist is perhaps best known for his Coyote series, in which he places the powerful trickster of Native American mythology into contemporary settings, and Stone Poems, inspired by his interest in ancient rock art. His Gold Rush paintings are more explicitly political and mark a stylistic change in his work. They are small, intimate works on paper in which gold penetrates the landscape and explodes on the horizon. In some, traces of red suggest the blood of Fonseca's ancestors shed by encroaching goldseekers. In this new series, the paint is mixed with soil and other natural materials from the heart of gold country. "Being in the environment in that country, feeling the energy of the land, gave me a chance to work with the subject matter on a new level," Fonseca notes. "The upheaval that took place was the catalyst for this body of work. It started with the land and Native American cultures that were disrupted if not destroyed, and evolved into how the Gold Rush affected everybody. The drama just grew."
  • Medium:
  • mixed media and gold leaf on paper
  • Condition:
  • The condition reports for the lots offered by Santa Fe Art Auction (SFAA) are provided as a courtesy and convenience for potential buyers. The reports are not intended to nor do they substitute for physical examination by a buyer or the buyer's advisors. The condition reports are prepared by SFAA staff members who are not art conservators or restorers, nor do they possess the qualifications needed for comprehensive evaluation. Each condition report is an opinion of the staff member and should not be treated as a statement of fact. The absence of a condition report does not imply anything as to the condition of a particular lot. Buyers are reminded that the limited warranties are set forth in the Terms and Conditions of Sale and do not extend to condition. Each lot is sold as-is.

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