Painting - Framed Gouache "Apache Crown Dancer" by Richard Caje, CSIB-28

Richard Caje (1940-1984), Mescalero Apache, is an artist whose history ended abruptly. He is listed in several reference books, but with no biographical information. The University of Arizona lists Cage as being a part of the Southwest Indian Arts Project at the University of Arizona, Tucson, in the early 1960s, which would make sense, but there are no pieces of his work in the Museum of Arizona, which is on the U of A campus. 

When this gouache was painted, Caje was awarded the First Prize in the Juvenile Division at the Gallup Ceremonial in 1957. He would have been 17, so it is possible that he went on to study at Arizona, but there is no record of his work. This gouache painting, Apache Crown Dancer, is a really nice and accurate painting. The image is 14” x 22” and the framed piece is 23.5” x 32”.