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Show Americana Vividly Dramatized in Leigh's Western Paintings I i i I 1 - " ! - . I - J " V ( - ' i : ' " " .' . - , , . , - ' 4 s - J - - Vf t i The Navaho "Fire Dance" is in William R. Leigh's one-man-show being i held In the Sargent Gallery of the Grand Central Art Galleries, 15 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, March 4-22. j In the whole of Indian life, nothing more spectacular can be seen than the Navaho Fire Dance or Mountain Chant. Unlike the Hop! Snake Dance, a prayer for rain, and held in autumn, the Navaho Fire Dance is "curative" and is confined to winter. Over 1500 Navahos assemble to witness the spectacle, which costs as much as or more than $1200. Some of the tribesmen in the foreground fore-ground are feasting at the expense of the patient. The dance lasts from sun-down to sun-up; the most dramatic part of it depicted here occurs after midnight. The dancers, smeared with whitish clay, Impersonate ghosts who through cavorting, the waving of torches and the shaking of rattles, are supposed to frighten away the evil spirits responsible for the illness. Very few white people have seen this dance which has never before been depicted. .It is the first of a series of Indian dances Mr. Leigh plans to paint. During the winter o 1939, In sub-zero weather and deep snow, Mr. Leigh accompanied by his wife, Ethel Traphagen, founder of the Traphagen School of Fashion, New York, journeyed j seventy-five miles from Gallup, i New Mexico into the Navaho Reser- j vation to obtain the preliminary I studies, done on the spot, for this picture. This canvas, which is still in the charcoal stage, is supplementary to 14 recently finished pictures and 15 studies never before exhibited. Among these are "The Shield," "The Best in the Bunch," "The Marauder," "Homeward Bound," "The Mystic," and "Arizona, the Wonderland." The exhibit is planned In a unique way, to give the layman and student an opportunity to see Borne of the steps involved -In tb.3 creation crea-tion of pictures. The studies represent repre-sent data painted from life in the Southwest. William Robinson Leigh, a descendant de-scendant of Pocahontas, is a Virginian, Vir-ginian, who more than thirty years ago. made his first visit to New Mexico and Arizona. He continues to carry on most forcefully the tradition of Remington and Russell. Besides Americana in which he has specialized, he has painted in Africa. He was selected by' Carl Akeley to accompany an expedition to East Africa for the American Museum of Natural History, and later by the Carlisle-Clark Expedition, Expedi-tion, to the same territory. He is the master painter of the habitat groups of African Hall of this museum, where some of his finest work may be seen. Albert, late King of the Belgians, The Duke of Windsor, Dr. Philip Cole, Edward Laurence . Doheny; Frank Philips Museum, The Huntington Hunt-ington Museum, The Newark Museum, The Heckscher Foundation, Founda-tion, and many other museums and private collections, contain the work of this artist who is also the author of "Frontiers of Enchantment," Enchant-ment," a book which details his trip with Akeley In Africa. This one-man-show of Americana, in the Sargent Gallery of the Grand Central Art Galleries, is represen-tative represen-tative of one of the few painters left who know the Old West and paint it adequately |