Pictorial Textile

Isabel John, Diné (Navajo) people, Southwestern Region, Native American

1980s

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Outdoor market scene includes people selling a variety of items including silver and turquoise jewelry, pottery, melons, and a stove, among other things. One group of people is seated and a woman kneeling on the ground is serving food and coffee. Children are playing and eating, people are pushing and pulling various carts and pick-up trucks are parked in the background. A narrow band of blue sky with puffy clouds sits above the horizon line; rug is bordered on left and right sides with zig-zag pattern.
Large Navajo woven wool rug dyed with aniline and vegetal dyes, the wide borders on each side and above and below the central image a dark red color with a geometric pattern consisting of connected black lines and small squares with white inside, the central image on a ground of beige and in shades of gray, red, black, and white with abstracted zigzag patterns at top and bottom and four white triangles with abstract geometric shapes in beige outlined in red and with white diamond shapes in the middle, in between these are similar abstract geometric shapes in gray outlined in black and with red triangles and beige double triangle shapes in the middle.
Black and white photograph of four Native American women wearing jingle dresses and face-covering bandanas, blurred Mount Rushmore in background.
The carved arm of the halibut hook is 10" alder (?) and represents a side view of a heron with neck folded. The vendor stated it was a cormorant, but I doubt this. The barb arm is 10". No barb.