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Photography by Edward C. Robison III.

Enchanted Forest

Pop Chalee, an artist from the Taos Pueblo who decided to pursue art professionally around age 30, achieved national recognition for her mystical forest and animal scenes. She enrolled at the Santa Fe Indian School, where students were encouraged to look to nineteenth-century Plains ledger drawings and ancient Pueblo pottery designs for inspiration. Chalee embraced the flatness and simplified forms of these sources while creating a radical new aesthetic. Her unconventional approach to space and imaginative color choices in works such as Enchanted Forest produce a dreamy, fantastical atmosphere.

Taos Pueblo, 1906 - 1993

Fechaca. 1950
MedioGouache on paper
Dimensiones31 x 37 in.
Línea de créditoCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2020.52
ClasificaciónWatercolor
Procedencia(RG Munn Auctions, Cloudcroft, NM); Bruce Hartman, Prairie Village, KS; purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2020
En exhibiciónNo
Enchanted Forest31 × 37 in.Tennis Ball2.7 in. diameter

This artwork's face covers about 157× the area of a tennis ball.Drawn to the same scale.

Enchanted Forest by Pop Chalee (Merina Lujan Hopkins) | Crystal Bridges