Lines on the Horizon FIG. 12: Ledger drawing. Cheyenne (Tsitsistas), Great Plains. C. 1880. Colored pencil on paper. 17.8 x 27.9 cm. Gift of the Thomas W. Weisel Family to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2013.76.128. FIG. 13: Ledger drawing. Cheyenne (Tsitsistas), Great Plains. C. 1880. Colored pencil on paper. 17.8 x 27.9 cm. Gift of the Thomas W. Weisel Family to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2013.76.131. 107 serape and the poncho serape are the only two textiles in the Navajo repertoire without a Pueblo origin. Instead their roots are in Spanish and Mexican traditions, notably the Saltillo serape, named for the city of Saltillo in the Mexican state of Coahuila, a center for both serape weaving and trade. During the nineteenth century, the Saltillo serape, distinguished by its intricate mosaic pattern and virtuosic tapestry technique, became one of the most recognizable elements of male dress in Mexico. By the 1830s, the Saltillo serape reached New Mexico through trade networks, and its design—a large central medallion of concentric diamonds set against a complex patterned field—had a transformative effect on Navajo weaving. Over the next fifty years, Navajo weavers began to explore a range of geometric motifs based on the serrated edges of the Saltillo diamond. From the relatively congested Saltillo serape, they extracted pure geometric forms, isolating and enlarging them according to traditional Navajo principles of symmetry, balance, and purity of design. The visual impact of these graphic geometric forms set against a crimson ground is arresting. The Pueblo had used raveled bayeta yarns and, later, commercial red or Saxony yarns as embroidery thread. In chief blankets, the Navajo incorporated red yarns into woven grounds and gave the color increased prominence as the blanket phases progressed. However, it is in the Classic serape that the red yarns were used to their fullest effect. When woven into the composition, the vibrancy of the hue created a charged surface of high contrast, and the fineness of the yarn’s ply encouraged sharply delineated forms and new spatial compositions. In the hands of master weavers, these shapes and colors became the foundations of a new visual vocabulary, which each artist used in unique ways for self-expression and experimentation (fig. 9). The Thomas W. Weisel Family Collection builds on other gifts of ancient and Native American art to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, of which the de Young is one component. These include major works of Maya art from Alec and Gail Merriam; the Thomas G. Fowler Collection of Eskimo and Inuit art; donations of Southwest ceramics from the collection of Paul and Barbara Weiss; the art of ancient Mesoamerica from Lewis K. and Elizabeth M. Land; and the de Young’s charter collection of California baskets. Lines on the Horizon represents the first step in a new conceptualization of the permanent collection and presentation of Native American Art at the de Young, which now has the opportunity to offer a comprehensive survey of Native American art stretching from the Arctic Circle to the American Southwest. * Vincente Troncoso, “Report on His Escort of Antonio El Pinto to His People,” 1788, trans. David Brugge. Spanish Archives, Coronado Library, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Cited in Joe Ben Wheat, “Documentary Basis for Material Changes and Design Styles in Navajo Blanket Weaving,” in Ethnographic Textiles of theWestern Hemisphere: Irene Emery Roundtable on Museum Textiles, 1976 Proceedings, eds. Irene Emery and Patricia L. Fiske (Washington, DC: Textile Museum, 1977), 420–440. Lines on the Horizon: Native American Art from the Weisel Family Collection Through January 4, 2015 De Young Museum, San Francisco www.famsf.org Lines on the Horizon: Native American Art from the Weisel Family Collection. Edited by Matthew Robb and Jill D’Alessandro Published in English by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2014. 96 pages. Softcover: $19.95.
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