Fall Corn Dance

This painting depicts the performers of the Fall Corn Dance. Waldo Mootza omitted the background in his images, thereby emphasizing the figures while adding a timeless quality. His paintings nevertheless mirror reality, as seen here in the fine details of the woven designs on the dancers’ skirts, the body decorations on the clowns, and the raised banner over the leaders.

Mootza was one of several artists who incorporated traditional Native painting styles from hides, pottery, and murals with the European-derived medium of watercolor to create a new Native American art form.