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“The Night Sky”

A particularly beautiful modern Navajo Sandpainting tapestry weaving by Peter Gilmore, c.1975

This exceptional weaving is a much smaller version done in finely-woven wool of its much larger artistic inspiration, the full-sized roughly six to eight feet square Navajo curing sandpainting “painted” by a “Hatahaali” or Navajo Medicine Man and his assistants using colored dry sands on the natural colored sand floor of a special Medicine Hogan for use in curing a particular Navajo patient or patients of a particular sickness or other condition. The patient or patients sit directly on top of the sandpainting during the ceremony and are ritually cured by its power.

Due to the extremely skilled artistry of its very talented creator, the well-known Navajo weaver, Peter Gilmore, this smaller version of the sandpainting still retains and projects all the full-sized majesty, power and impact of its bigger brother. The actual dry sand Navajo sandpaintings themselves are extremely complex and highly-detailed ritual compositions hand drawn in various multi-colored dry sands on a clean flat light sand background surface which are used in the conduct of Navajo healing ceremonies or “Chants” to summon various gods to cure or prevent various maladies and conditions.

Sandpainting weavings or tapestries such as this one are very slightly stylized versions of these dry sand paintings which were historically first made in the 1920’s and 1930’s by prominent Navajo Medicine Men such as Hastiin Klah (1867-1937) or under the close supervision and guidance of these Medicine Men in order to prevent any harm from coming to the weaver for capturing the sacred images too accurately in a permanent form as opposed to the temporary form of the actual sandpaintings themselves which are by ancient custom always destroyed at the conclusion of the ceremony, literally and deliberately tossed into the air and scattered to the winds.

NAVAJO SANDPAINTING WEAVINGS:

THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT AND ENDURING TRADITION

Pictured above at left, Navajo Medicine Man, Hastiin Klah (1867-1937) was the first Navajo weaver to record the sacred healing sandpaintings, as pictured above right, in permanent weaving form in the 1920’s. When he didn’t die or suffer grievous harm from doing this, other weavers such as Atlnaba and Klah's niece, Gladys Manuelito soon followed suit often under the protection and with the expert guidance of Medicine Men such as Klah and Miguelito.

In 1936-37, Santa Fe arts patron Mary Cabot Wheelwright and architect, William Penhallow Henderson built The Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art in Santa Fe (now The Wheelwright Museum) in the shape of a Navajo Hogan to house and display a collection of Hastiin Klah’s extraordinary large sandpainting weavings.

Above left, Hastiin Klah with an "Angled Corn with Yeis" weaving, July 1925. Photo by Dane Coolidge.

Photo source and © Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley. Above right photo source and © Mullarky Photo, Gallup, NM.

“May it be beautiful before me.

May it be beautiful behind me.

May it be beautiful below me.

May it be beautiful above me.

May it be beautiful all around me.

In Beauty may I walk.”

-The Navajo Night Chant

At top left, Navajo Medicine Man and Weaver, Hastíín Klah, weaving a sandpainting tapestry of The Night Sky, c. 1925. At bottom left,

a view of Canyon de Chelly where the Navajo Night Chant began some 3000 years ago. At right, a sandpainting tapestry weaving of

The Night Sky from The Night Chant by Hastiin Klah, c. 1930, purchased by famed Arizona archaeologist, Harold C. Gladwin from Arthur and Frances Newcomb’s Trading Post in Newcomb, New Mexico. The Newcombs obtained this weaving directly from Hastiin Klah.

Top left photo source and © Bancroft Library, University of California/Dane Coolidge (Banc Pic 1905.17171:47). Right photo source and © Fine Arts of the Southwest, Santa Fe.

The particular image captured in this fine sandpainting tapestry weaving is the majestic Navajo Night Sky from the great Night Way or Night Chant Ceremonial. The Night Chant is revered as one of the most sacred, profound and most complex of all Navajo ceremonial pageants, dating back some three thousand years to Canyon de Chelly in what is now present-day northeastern Arizona. The ceremony spans nine full nights and contains an extremely complex series of rituals, dances and chants involving literally hundreds of songs, dozens of prayers and numerous highly intricate sand paintings of which The Night Sky is one of the most beautiful and meaningful.

At its core, like most Navajo ceremonials, the Night Chant is a healing ritual aimed at curing the sick and restoring balance and harmony within the Navajo universe. A Navajo Night Sky sandpainting was first realized as an actual wool tapestry weaving by the great Navajo Medicine Man and weaver, Hastiin Klah in the early 1920’s, as shown below at left while still in its early stages on the loom and a closely related, slightly later Hastiin Klah “Night Sky” Sandpainting tapestry weaving from around 1930 is shown in its fully completed form below at right.

The Peter Gilmore weaving we are discussing here properly and beautifully depicts the Moon and the Sun suspended in the night sky surrounded by multi-colored short rainbows and various stars all bordered along both sides by the figural heads of ten supernatural Navajo Yei Gods. The central black panel is also bordered on top and bottom by various eagle, antelope and bat figures. This Night Sky tapestry weaving is woven with a light sand-colored natural handspun wool background. The grey, white and black wools are also natural handpsun and the other various colored wools appear to be dyed with vegetal and aniline-dyes. One small detail worth noting is the deliberately omitted short rainbow on the moon figure at the top of the weaving. This may be an intentional omission by Peter Gilmore to avoid the taboo of reproducing the actual sandpainting too literally.

The weaving measures an easy to display 36" in height and 29" in width and it is in completely outstanding, virtually as-new original condition with no holes, no pulls, no moth damages, no fading and no restoration. All of the weaving’s selvedges and tassels are totally intact as is its original paper sales tag. There is no "A" or "B" side to the weaving, both sides are equally strong and vibrant with no fading in evidence. This is remarkable condition indeed for the weavings fifty-plus years of age, as according to the previous original owner's records, the weaving was done in 1975. The weaving is woven in a fairly tight weave. There are about 10-11 warps per inch and approximately 16-17 wefts per inch. The weaving is very nice and thin with a wonderful soft "handle".

Weaver Peter (Pete) Gilmore lives in Chinle, Arizona, very near Canyon de Chelly where the Navajo Night Chant originated some 3,000 years ago. He comes from the distinguished Gilmore Navajo weaving family of the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. Numerous members of the Gilmore family, including Peter Gilmore are well-known Navajo weavers who specialize in intricate, highly-detailed modern-day sandpainting weaving tapestries such as this one.

While we cannot guarantee that this extraordinary Navajo Night Sky sandpainting weaving will always cure everything that ails you or always prevent you from harm, we can definitely promise you that having it around will always certainly make you feel fantastic and happy that you are in its lovely embrace and benevolent presence.

As the Navajo say, it will help you to Walk in Beauty.

SOLD

At left and right, both sides of the weaving are equally vibrant and strong. There is no "A" or "B" side apparent.