PABLITA VELARDE, HELEN HARDIN, AND MARGARETE BAGSHAW: THREE GENERATIONS OF ASSERTION, EXPRESSION, AND INNOVATION

Abstract

This dissertation examines the work of three generations of Santa Clara women, Pablita Velarde (1918-2006), Helen Hardin (1943-1984) and Margarete Bagshaw (1964-2015). In order to contextualize their work, I discuss the historical development of the marketplace for Native American art and note that the early modern Pueblo artists Nampeyo, Maria Martinez, and Tonita Peña each created art that was both responsive to the market demand for ethnographic authenticity and reflective of their creativity and agency. As they each passed on cultural and artistic knowledge generationally and forged new paths for female Native artists, Nampeyo, Martinez, and Peña set examples for Velarde and her family to follow. I argue that Velarde’s numerous images of female Pueblo potters catered to market demand, celebrated and preserved her culture, and subtly engaged with modernism. An analysis of Hardin’s imagery reveals that her work, while cultural in subject matter, was modernist in style. Her precise linearity and geometric abstractions diverged from Velarde’s style, yet Hardin was inspired by her mother’s depictions of culture. I compare Bagshaw’s paintings to the work of some prominent modernist artists and note formal similarities between the two, thus presenting a new way of analyzing her work. I investigate how her work addressed issues of cultural identity, including her multi-cultural heritage. I argue that Bagshaw’s work is both indebted to and divergent from Velarde’s and Hardin’s work, and analyze specific paintings from her “Mother Line” series to support this claim. I conclude that Velarde, Hardin, and Bagshaw each were assertive in their careers, expressive in their art, and innovative in their style.