Lean Monongye
Hemis / Home
Dancer
14 3/4"
H w 1" base
"Probably one of the
most beautiful and best known of all Hopi Kachinas is the Hemis
Kachina. Often he is incorrectly called the Niman Kachina from
the ceremony in which he is most often seen. At sunrise, when
the kachinas come to the plaza to dance for the first time, they
bring with them entire corn plants, the first corn harvest of
the year, to distribute to the audience.
"Against the backdrop
of these magnificent kachinas and their Manas can be seen a flurry
of youngsters carrying the whole corn plants and brightly-colored
presents to the sidelines.
"In the Niman or the
Home Dance no other kachinas appear, neither clowns nor side
dancers, only the Hemis Kachinas and their Manas in a double
line rotating slowly in opposite directions, and turning yet
again.
"This final dance of
the kachinas is both stately and reverent. The Hemis Kachina
is presumed to have come from Jemez, a Rio Grande Pueblo. However,
at Jemez Pueblo they have a ceremony in which the Hemis Kachina
appears, and they refer to it as a Hopi dance."
- Barton Wright, Kachinas: a Hopi
Artist's Documentary (214).
Lean Monongye has done a nice
job with this beautiful carving. Lean is a young carver, probably
in his early thirties, from Third Mesa.
His work is very distinct,
and he is well known for his smooth finish and fine detail. The
highly detailed evergreens no doubt were maid painstakingly over
many, many hours. Lean has done an excellent job of using lighter
paints to give this figure a sense of realism - almost as if
you were seeing this dancer in the plaza this summer.
His headdress looks as if
it was passed down for generations - a true cultural treasure.
The folds in the belt and sash are extremely well done, which
is characteristic of Lean's work. The hands (fingers, knuckles,
and nails) are always well done.
He is one of my personal favorites,
and I have yet to see a kachina by Lean that I wouldn't like
to have in my own personal collection. I feel that his work is
upper-middle tier and still represents a good value as an artist
with a lot of potential.
