Pablita’s Wardrobe: Family & Fashion
Exhibition Dates
Location Details
Lower Level
Featured Image Details Below
A video of our discussion with Helen Tindel is available here.
Velarde was interviewed for the 1993 Wheelwright exhibition A Woman’s Work.
She was asked, “How has your art influenced your family?” Velarde answered,
“They ate art when they were born, it was around them the whole time.”
Pablita Velarde (Tse Tsan, Golden Dawn, 1918-2006), Helen Hardin (Tsa-sah-wee-eh, Little Standing Spruce, 1943-1984) and Margarete Bagshaw (1964-2015), mother, daughter, and granddaughter, have a defining role in our understanding of painting traditions in New Mexico. All are tied to, and descended from, the Tewa people of Kha’p’o Owingeh, Santa Clara Pueblo. Each was independently known as one of the finest painters of her generation. Each struggled to be recognized in an artistic field still predominantly defined as Anglo and male.
As women artists, defining and holding their own space was important. A means of achieving this was the careful cultivation of self-image while holding onto cultural values beyond the reach of a commercial art scene. As an early pioneer who needed to be intimately involved in the promotion of her own work, Velarde was recognizable by her sense of style. Early portraits show her dressed in a manner that honors Santa Clara Pueblo clothing traditions. This continued throughout her life, seen in iconic images by Lee Marmon (Laguna Pueblo, 1925-2021) and Laura Gilpin (1950-2007) when Velarde was at the peak of her professional success. This careful attention was in turn linked to her art practice, which detailed Pueblo women’s experience, clothing, and jewelry.
For Velarde, Hardin and Bagshaw, the elegant and intentional crafting of style secured their iconic status. Custom-made outfits reflecting Pueblo traditions were accessorized with cotton and wool sashes, shawls, moccasins, and enhanced with Native jewelry.
While allowing for distinction and recognition, these items were also shared. Clothing and jewelry was witness to their complex, evolving relationships and intimacy as a family.
“These are the clothes my great-grandmother and grandmother wore and loved. The clothes that stayed in the wardrobe to be worn again and again. Items that became associated with them and saturated with memories. My mother kept these clothes after my grandma Helen and great-grandma Pablita passed away. I inherited these items and have carried them with me these last ten years, since my mother passed away. I can’t get rid of them because it feels like one of the last living pieces that I can physically hold on to.
Here are the dresses I hid behind as a little girl for a sense of safety and the shoes once too big for me that I dreamed of growing into. They are the
feelings I can feel. The clothes help me remember the women I love so much and take me back to a time when I was a little girl, and they were here with me.”
~ Helen
Featured Image Details
LEFT Velarde photographed by Lee Marmon, 1976, in front of her painting Indian Pueblo Crafts (1974)
MIDDLE Hardin photographed as Beauty Queen at the 1959 Gallup Inter-tribal Ceremonial
RIGHT Hardin and Bagshaw at Indian Market, 1981.
All photos from family collection.
We are grateful to Helen Tindel who generously loaned the collection and supported this exhibition.
Currently On View
Jim and Lauris Phillips Center for the Study of Southwestern Jewelry.
Art in public spaces, including murals, can serve as a vehicle for dialogue about history, describe relationships, and depict the resilience of the community in the hope to create equity, agency, and healing.
Admission: $10.00
Free for Museum Members, Native Americans, children under 12, students with a valid ID, veterans and active military.
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