David Chethlahe Paladin
Diné (Navajo), 1926 - 1984
Robust Circle
acrylic on canvas
inscribed verso: CHETHLAHE
30 x 15 in. (76.2 x 38.1 cm.), frame: 31 3/4 x 16 3/4 x 1 3/4 in. (80.6 x 42.5 x 4.4 cm.)

Private Collection, Connecticut

David Chethlahe Paladin was a Navajo painter and spiritual thinker whose work blended Indigenous symbolism, modernist abstraction, and intensely personal imagery. Born on the Navajo Nation, Paladin served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was captured and imprisoned by the Germans, an experience that profoundly shaped his later life and art. After the war he studied in New York and went on to develop a distinctive body of paintings, drawings, and prints concerned with transformation, mythology, ceremony, and the relationship between physical and spiritual worlds. He remains an important figure in the development of modern Native American art.

This piece is in very good condition overall.

A condition report for this lot is available upon request (please include the lot number in your request) and is provided by Santa Fe Art Auction as a courtesy and convenience for potential buyers.