John Nieto

John Nieto (1936-2018) called himself an American artist who paints Indians, not an Indian artist. An acclaimed leader of his field, but taking a separate path to represent Native Americans in striking symbolic portraits, Nieto is exhibited worldwide and has had paintings accepted for the Presidential library. He did not attempt to be authentic, but to show a core Native spirit. His Indians seem to belong to a universal tribe that suggest a common, Far Eastern origin, and connection with a contemporary group. Early this century, Indian artists were cultivated in a white man’s school and encouraged to portray ancestral and reservation experiences. Art from that period was inauthentic and oblivious to world trends. Since mid-century, Indian-born artists began to tell a bitter truth of Indian pain from alcoholism and other social problems. John Nieto’s work belongs to neither camp. His Indians are not idealized or troubled. They are potters, warriors, silversmiths or shamans in traditional garb, as well as indigenous wildlife, painted in brilliant, oddly paired colors and radiating a quiet dignity. “There is no formula for my faces. I paint the dance of identity around the pan-Indian bone structure of all Native Americans. I am painting a person, but I am painting much more than that,” said Nieto. He said that his art “is the result of an emotional involvement with my subject matter rather than a cerebral one.” He used broad strokes and thick layers of brilliant colors with a halo of contrasting color traced around each figure. His electric hues are unmistakable.  Nieto’s work reflects his upbringing from Hispanic and Indian-born parents. His distinct style comes not only from his native New Mexico, where he still lived, but also from a global awareness and travels to Europe. His unfettered use of brilliant colors has been likened to the Fauves of the 1920s’ French movement. Nieto spent time in Paris and also seemed to be influenced by European