Although most sources refer to her work as watercolor, the National Gallery more specifically identifies the medium as gouache—the opaque form of watercolor. The painting depicts 19 dancers (9 women and 10 men) adorned in ceremonial clothing and face paint, carrying greenery and ceremonial objects. The single man who stands at the head of the group is wearing much more decorative clothing and holding a filled basket. It is painted using a limited palette which appears to include black, white, burnt sienna or a red ochre, yellow ochre, turquoise, sap green and a single instance of pale lavender. Several of these pure pigment colors are the same earth tones used by pueblo potters.
Pena uses contour lines to outline all of her figures even though, in several instances (particularly the men’s legs and torsos), the contrast between the reddish brown skin tones and the background would be sufficient to delineate the figure. There is little variation in the line thickness or density among the figures.
Because of the use of black and white, both extremes of the value scale are represented. The reddish brown, turquoise, green and yellow ochre expand the mid-range of the scale but there is no attempt to shade any of these colors or to use value to add depth and volume. This presents a two-dimensional, flat image to the viewer. Again, this style is characteristic of the self-taught group.
Although traditions of the dance dictate a good portion of the composition, the perspective Pena chooses (slightly above the dancers and to the left) creates an asymmetry which draws the eye into the painting and leads it toward the man who stands alone at the head of the lines facing the dancers. The dancers are shown without a ground plane—either as a painted surface or implied by shadows--so that these figures constitute all of the positive space and they are surrounded by a negative space colored only by the tone of the paper.
Shapes of the male and female figures are repeated several times with little attempt to differentiate between them. The twelve figures in the 2 lines facing each other are all posed in the same position (as they presumably would be for the dance) while the other 7 are shown from different aspects which makes their shapes different although 6 of them seem to be doing the same dance step. However, it is the details within the shapes that enables the viewer to be aware of a subtle commentary the artist is making. Looking at the individual male dancers one can discern little if any difference between their bodies, faces, clothing and decoration, but looking closely at the women we can see subtle differences the clothing and jewelry from one figure to the next: sleeve decorations, earring shapes and colors, bead placement on their necklaces, and types and colors of sashes. If one looks at the works of other self-taught members this does not seem to be the case.
Was this Pena’s understated way to emphasize the role of women? In part, it is this question that draws me to the piece. I admire the fact that Pena both recognized and was willing to make a statement about women’s role in the society of the pueblo. I believe that Pena’s work, in general is important because of her role as the single female artist among the self-taught painters, but this piece specifically because it has found its way into the National Gallery’s collection. I would definitely enjoy having it in my home, both for its design and its significance.
Any changes I might suggest—changes that would make it conform to such compositional standards such as including foreground and background or to portray the figures as 3-dimensional—would only take it out of its time period and reduce the importance of the truth it embodies. However, I would like to see a contemporary artist explore with this subject and configuration of figures in a modern style—manga, perhaps?—to breathe new life into this traditional dance.
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