Keats Begay
Born(1923-05-17)May 17, 1923
Chinle, Arizona
DiedJanuary 5, 1987(1987-01-05) (aged 63)
NationalityNavajo Nation, American
Alma materSanta Fe Indian School
Occupationpainter

Keats Begay (May 17, 1923 – January 5, 1987) was a Navajo American painter who lived in Chinle, Arizona and was active in the late 1930s.[1][2][3] Begay has exhibited his work across the country, including at the National Gallery of Art,[4][2] and is known for his colorful, flat style paintings. Some of his works are in the permanent collection of institutions including the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Museum of Northern Arizona,[5] the Southwest Museum of the American Indian and the Museum of New Mexico.[1][6]

Begay studied at the Santa Fe Indian School.[6] Begay's work included stylized depictions of colorful landscapes and of everyday life, sometimes integrated with Navajo sandpainting and other symbolic motifs.[7]

Begay was a long-distance runner, earning a state championship.[6] He served in the United States Armed Forces during World War II, surviving the Bataan Death March in April 1942 and then spending the remainder of the war as a prisoner of war in Japan.[8] Begay compared his experience on the Bataan Death March as comparable to the Long Walk of the Navajo in 1864, in which Navajo were forcibly moved to a reservation.[9]

    References

    1. 1 2 King, Jeanne Snodgrass (1968). American Indian painters; a biographical directory. Smithsonian Libraries. New York : Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. p. 18.
    2. 1 2 Tanner, Clara Lee (1973). Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art. Internet Archive (Second ed.). University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-0309-4.
    3. ↑ White, Jon Manchip (1979). Everyday life of the North American Indian. Internet Archive. London : Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-0043-4.
    4. ↑ Spencer, Anne (1977). As the seasons turn : Southwest Indian easel painting and related arts ; an exhibition from the collection of the Newark Museum, May - December 1977. Internet Archive. Newark, NJ. : Newark Museum.
    5. ↑ Reporter, GABRIEL GRANILLO Sun Staff. "New MNA exhibit looks at 90 years of artists and donors". Arizona Daily Sun. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
    6. 1 2 3 Lester, Patrick D. (Patrick David) (1995). The biographical directory of Native American painters. Internet Archive. Tulsa, OK : SIR Publications ; Norman, OK : Distributed by University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-9936-8.
    7. ↑ Brody, J. J. (1971). Indian painters & white patrons. Internet Archive. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-0192-5.
    8. ↑ "22 Arizonians Are Listed As Jap Prisoners". Tucson Daily Citizen. 1943-03-08. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
    9. ↑ Venables, Robert W. (2004). American Indian history : five centuries of conflict & coexistence. Internet Archive. Santa Fe, N.M. : Clear Light Publishers. ISBN 978-1-57416-061-1.



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