Gilcrease Museum is temporarily closed for construction.

Get the Full Story
Date posted:  October 11, 2022

Detail of deer and rabbits from Forest Scene.

 

Detail of squirrels from Forest Scene.

Pop Chalee’s playful Forest Scene depicts an intricate view of one the artist’s favorite subjects: the natural world. Four bright blue deer, a figure often associated with Chalee, gracefully leap across a forest floor teeming with plant and animal life. The deer’s legs extend out in long lines, creating the illusion of movement in an otherwise still scene. Small, nearly identical rabbits hop across the bottom of the painting, echoing the movement of the deer. Groups of smaller animals, including squirrels, porcupines, bear cubs, and skunks gather beneath the branches of willow, cedar, and pine trees . The artist carefully placed tiny brushstrokes for the sprigs on each tree branch, the bushy tails of the squirrels, and the individual quills of every porcupine. Chalee achieved such precise linework with a paintbrush made of a single bristle of horsehair.

Lujan Family (Pop Chalee, far right), ca. 1909. Merina Lujan Hopkins (Pop Chalee) Collection, IAIA Archives. Courtesy of the Hopkins Family and IAIA Archives. IAIAMS026/01.02-0001.

Pop Chalee, whose name in Tiwa–the language spoken at Taos Pueblo–means “Blue Flower,” was born Merina Lujan in 1906. She was the third child born to a Taos Pueblo father, Joseph, and a Swiss and East Indian mother, Myrtle.  Chalee spent much of her youth living between Taos and Salt Lake City, Utah, before enrolling as an adult in the Studio at the Santa Fe Indian School in 1935. Under the guidance of Dorothy Dunn, an educator who taught many Pueblo painters in the early 20th century, Chalee refined the Studio Style to reflect her own experiences.  The Studio Style refers to a painting technique that uses flat, bold blocks of color with little to no detail in the background, and typically, no shading or three-dimensional modeling on figures. While studying under Dunn, the artist described her own paintings as “flat and simple, leaving things out that are not important, but making a beautiful picture.”

Pop Chalee at work. Merina Lujan Hopkins (Pop Chalee) Collection, IAIA Archives. Courtesy of the Hopkins Family and IAIA Archives. IAIAMS026/01.02-0003.
Pop Chalee at work. Merina Lujan Hopkins (Pop Chalee) Collection, IAIA Archives. Courtesy of the Hopkins Family and IAIA Archives. IAIAMS026/01.02-0003.

The artist’s grandson, Jack Cruz Hopkins, said that Chalee’s woodlands imagery comes from the time she spent as a child in the forests surrounding Taos Pueblo and to the stories she was told during her childhood. Her grandfather would regale Chalee with tales about a mythical horse who flew over the Pueblo each night, ensuring the children were safe. This is where her familiar horse and deer figures originated, as she visualized the oral narratives passed down from her grandfather.  Chalee also spent much of her free time in the densely wooded mountains of Taos, where she carefully studied the details of the plants, trees, animals, and landforms around her. Like Pop Chalee, we can spend time in the natural spaces around us, appreciating the details we might miss in our day-to-day lives.

By Dr. Chelsea Herr, Jack and Maxine Zarrow Curator for Indigenous Art and Culture, September 2022