Katsina/Suite 3, 1990
Ramona Sakiestewa (American, born 1948)
wool 35 1/2 x 47 in. (90.2 x 119.4 cm) and 35 1/2 x 64 in. (90.2 x 162.6 cm)
Gift of Burt and Jane Berman, 2009
2009.45.2ab
Ramona Sakiestewa is an artist of Hopi decent who lives and works in New Mexico. Sakiestewa taught herself to weave by evolving and adapting techniques that came from prehistoric Pueblo weaving. Today she integrates her cultural history with contemporary art and creates colorful abstract tapestries.
This woven tapestry is titled Katsina Suite 3, referring to the spirit beings that represent the natural world in Pueblo culture. A katsina, or kachina, represents something in the natural world or cosmos. It could be an ancestor, an element, a place, a creature, a natural phenomenon, an idea or a concept.