ABSTRACT INDIGENISTS.

Byline: DOUGLAS FAIRFIELD

Ride 'em high, ride 'em low, or display 'em as art. Navajo saddle blankets have a rich history and, for some, are still necessary gear when taking to the trail. For others, they are beautiful objects that set an aesthetic tone in home decor and, together with the more common Navajo blanket, may be said to be an integral part of the Santa Fe style. Highly collectible, Navajo saddle blankets come in various sizes and a broad set of patterns and are priced from, well, whatever you're willing to pay for a piece of material culture handcrafted by skilled weavers.

Beginning Wednesday, July 15, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery showcases more than 70 historical Navajo saddle blankets, including one commissioned by Will Rogers. Collectively, the exhibit features examples from as early as 1870 to 1930, based on three general types or classes of saddle blankets: those with stripes, those with decorative borders, and so-called "fancy" creations with complex patterning. According to Michael Ettema, director of Medicine Man Gallery, "Navajo saddle blankets started attracting special interest among weaving collectors in the 1980s, and interest has increased steadily since then."

Originally, Navajo saddle blankets were simply diminutive variants of woven, wearable blankets. The earliest ones were made from wool sheared from churro sheep introduced by Spanish settlers in the 17th century. By the 1860s, patterns consisted of horizontal bands of natural white, brown, or gray wool augmented with indigo-dyed blue and red taken from commercial wool flannel known as bayeta cloth. Navajo weavers would typically unravel the trade cloth only to reweave the red threads on a loom with other spun yarns, resulting in a basic yet vibrant color scheme. Sometimes geometric designs were added for visual effect that consisted of stepped or terrace motifs -- symbolic of cloud or mountain forms -- along with diamond shapes and crossed bars (indicating the four directions or winds).

Although popular among Anglo and Hispanic riders during the 19th century, Navajo saddle blankets became limited in supply after the general populace of the Navajo was forced by the United States government into internment camps at Bosque Redondo in eastern New Mexico beginning in 1864 (the effort was led by Kit Carson to thwart Indian raids on incoming settlers and became infamous as "The Long Walk"). One positive thing that came out of this disgraceful treatment was the emergence of "eyedazzlers." So called for their bold patterns and lively colors, these particular saddle blankets incorporated intricate diamond motifs and were made from manufactured yarn supplied to Navajo weavers by

the U.S. government from the well-known Germantown mills

in Pennsylvania. Such yarn came in a variety of colors never before used by the Navajo, thus inspiring new designs. And

thus "Germantown" became the common designation for these blankets and rugs.

Within 10 years following their captivity, when the Navajos' sheep herds were replenished by the U.S. government and Germantown yarns were no longer subsidized to the tribe, Navajo weavers returned to their traditional methods of shearing, spinning, and dying their own wool.

Within each of the three classes of Navajo saddle blankets, there are single and double sizes. Double saddle blankets were folded, giving twice the protection to the horse. "Judging from their rate of survival, double blankets were much more commonly used than the singles," Ettema said. Furthermore, the more tightly spun and woven pieces that were adorned with complex patterning

-- the fancy blankets, which included the eyedazzlers -- were often positioned atop the saddle as a cushion for the rider. The more exposed nature of those blankets made them conducive to being outfitted with fringe and/or tassels. Think of the late Roy Rogers -- King of the Cowboys -- and Dale Evans on parade riding Trigger and Buttercup.

By some accounts, Navajo saddle blanket designs were influential to the development of 20th-century abstraction in Europe and the United States. Prior to his move from the West to New York, Wyoming-born Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock witnessed Native sand-painting techniques, which may have informed his method of dripping and spattering paint onto canvas laid flat on his studio floor. In the late 1930s, painter Mark Rothko lived in Tucson, Arizona, where he observed Hopi ceremonial dances and became familiar with their geometric patterning and animal symbolism. Relocated to New York, he made return trips to the Southwest as late as 1949 to observe Pueblo dances.

Whether or not these individuals incorporated Navajo saddle blanket design into their work is unclear; but it seems more than a coincidence that, beginning in the late 1940s, Rothko's color-field paintings have compositional qualities in common with saddle blanket designs: horizontal bands of color within a contrasted color field and sometimes large areas of color defining two halves of the canvas. Nevertheless, Pollock, Rothko, and other New York abstractionists would have certainly seen published examples of Native American art -- along with African sculpture, Italian woodcuts, and colonial American art -- in J. B. Neumann's The Art Lover, a short-lived publication circulated among the New York intelligentsia and dedicated to "the neglected, the misprized, and the little known."

Still unknown to a larger audience, Navajo saddle blankets are, indeed, rich in historical and modern references. They have a legacy that predates New Mexico's territorial period, and they still capture our imagination, both for their utilitarian use and their austere beauty. "Surely many buyers are interested in their history and the fact that they are a type of textile that the Navajo continued to make for their own use long after they stopped making blankets for themselves and started producing rugs for the traders," Ettema said. "Their broadest appeal, however, lies in a distinctive aesthetic that is not only unlike textiles from other cultures but also unlike other Navajo weavings. Although we can never know all of the meanings and nuances of their aesthetic origins, they do give us a glimpse into Navajo ways of thinking."

details

Navajo Saddle Blankets: 1870-1930

Opens Wednesday, July 15; through Sept. 15

Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, 602-A Ca