An enduring legacy: Pablita Velarde, Helen Hardin and Margarete Bagshaw broke boundaries and built a dynasty through art

Pablita Velarde launched a female dynasty in the art world with her own “studio style” paintings and subsequent works by her daughter, Helen Hardin, and her granddaughter, Margarete Bagshaw.

All three women broke boundaries — Velarde by taking brush to canvas, something Santa Clara Pueblo women were forbidden to do; Hardin with her forays combining traditional cultural imagery with geometry; and Bagshaw with her large-scale works reflecting both pueblo motifs and the modern artists of her time.

Santa Fe’s Adobe Gallery is celebrating this trio of talent with “Enduring Legacies,” a showcase of works by all three artists, through May 26.

An enduring legacy: Exhibit showcases three Santa Ana women who broke boundaries through art

Their paintings left an indelible impact on the art of the Southwest.

Painting was not considered women’s work in Velarde’s time.

Born Tse Tsan, meaning “Golden Dawn” in the Tewa language, Velarde grew up in poverty. She was known for her earth paintings using mineral and rock elements, which she ground on a metate and mano until the result was a powdery substance from which she made her paints. She painted almost exclusively on paper supports, and used watercolor and casein in addition to the earth pigments.

Velarde was the first full-time female student in Dorothy Dunn’s art class at the Santa Fe Indian School; she also studied with Tonita Peña. She painted in the “traditional” Santa Fe style and did accurate portraits of Native American life and culture. Renowned for her mural project at Bandelier National Monument, her work captured rituals and customs in vivid detail.

“Pablita really helped popularize Native American imagery through a very digestible style,” said Todd Scalise, gallery associate. “It was an introduction to a lot of Native American imagery.”

Hardin (Tsa-Sah-Wee-Eh — “Little Standing Spruce”) broke from tradition by incorporating geometric forms into pueblo motifs.

She also added imagery from pueblo cultures other than Santa Clara.

Hardin’s distinctive and compelling style became more fully realized in the 1970s, with a series of paintings of katsina figures.

These and her later works are immensely complex works of art that have been displayed in museums around the world. Her personal explorations led her into the deeply affecting works of the very well-known “Woman” series.

Much of her work is concerned with the intellectual and physical struggle of her very existence — the struggle of woman versus man, patron versus artist, Indian versus Anglo, tradition versus progression.

“She was the trailblazer for that,” Scalise added.

Bagshaw continued the legacy, infusing her bold, Modernist paintings with the dynamic color palettes and geometric motifs. Drawing from her Tewa heritage, Bagshaw’s artworks offer introspective glimpses into her inner world, exemplified in pieces like “Solipsism.”

“There’s a big demand for her artwork,” Scalise said. “What differentiates her is the scale of her work. Margarete worked on an epic scale. She was a product of her generation.”

All three artists used the circle, central to Native American cultures.

“Pablita was a master of line work,” Scalise added. “Margarete also incorporates that into her compositions.”

Dunn used the line as a teaching tool to help Native artists depict their stories and imagery, featuring heavily outlined flat fields of color.

“It looks a lot like Disney cartoon style,” Scalise said. “It was kind of a white culture style being imposed on Native American culture. I would argue that it was very beneficial that Native Americans learned this skill set.”

According to Santa Fe Indian School artist Pop Chalee, Walt Disney once visited the school and tried to hire several of the artists, who refused the offer. She sold him a forest scene with running deer.

Dunn’s strict adherence to a single style of painting has been widely criticized, especially from within the Native American community.

Celebrated Chiricahua Apache sculptor Allan Houser said, “she trained us all the same way ... Her style lacked originality and creativity.”

But Velarde appreciated Dunn, who taught her students to appreciate traditional Native ways.

Bagshaw also brought her lineage into modern art, Scalise said, as her canvases expanded to 12 feet. She mixed math and mysticism, producing an interior world of katsinas, avanyus and a chorus of women singing.

In 2012, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture mounted a solo show of her work. She died in 2015.