Percy Sandy Tsisete, 1918 - 1974

Not a lot is known about Percy Sandy. This watercolor artist from Zuni Pueblo was on the way to a great career when, in 1959, he was in an automobile accident. While he continued to work, he was not as prolific as he had been prior to the accident.

After going to high school in Zuni, he went to the Santa Fe Indian School and the Sherman Indian School in Riverside, California.

Here the story gets a little murky. Several writers claim that the artist was asked to leave the Zuni Pueblo because of the accuracy with which he was painting ceremonies and ceremonial objects. Tribal elders did not believe these should be shared.

Other stories claim that he met his future wife, Peggy Mirable, of Taos and moved to her Pueblo out of love. Who knows, it might have been a combination of both!

He did paint the customs of his people and said he hoped they “will be my small contribution to a great race.” He believed his paintings were preserving history.

Sandy signed his work Kai Sa (Red Moon) and while he experimented with many styles and mediums of painting, he preferred watercolors.

You might recognize Percy’s work for his mural which is found in the La Fonda Hotel in Taos (the same hotel where you can see a collection of D.H. Lawrence’s “Forbidden Art” collection. These were confiscated from a London Gallery by the police in 1929. Today they are not considered so risqué.)  He also painted murals in the Black Rock, New Mexico School and Hospital.

His work is also in the Philbrook Art Center and the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, The Indian Arts and Crafts Board in D.C. the Museum of Northern Arizona, the Museum of New Mexico and many more.

I find it fascinating that this man, who was crippled at 41 and who only painted sporadically after that, was able to gain such respect. Of course, his technical ability was very good, but what really seemed to take him to a level that was appreciated by so many institutions were his depictions of Native culture that were so accurate.

His work belongs in any serious Native American art collection and we are proud to offer the two wonderful pieces featured in this newsletter.

One is the Evening Whipper, from the Zuni Creation story. The second is the Hopi Doll Giver, a Hopi Kachina that will bestow a carved doll on a young girl during the dance.

I hope that somewhere, someone wrote more about Percy Sandy. His goal was to preserve Pueblo Culture through art. I believe that was a worthy goal. I never heard of him until we receive these two paintings and I am thankful for what the search for their origin taught me about this artist.

He is too important to be lost in the cloud of history.