Felipe Benito Archuleta (1910-1991), "Bikini Lady and Child" (1974), carved and painted wood, signed and dated "10-22-1974 F.B.A.". Size: 55" x 26" x 36". An early and rare work by one of the major figures in Navajo Folk Art. Provenance: Purchased from the Davis Mather Folk Art Gallery (Santa Fe, New Mexico).

American folk artist Felipe Benito Archuleta (1910–1991) is frequently considered to be the grandfather of the non-santero wood carving tradition in his native New Mexico. He began sculpting relatively late in life, prompted, as he explained, by a command from God. Though he was moved to utilize the same soft cottonwood that generations of Southwestern carvers have employed, he felt he was unworthy to be a santero—a maker of Saints—and turned his hand to sculpting animals. His piece at auction, however, is a human woman clad in a pink bikini with yellow stars; her wide stance was probably inspired by the branching of the wood from which she was carved. A beam of painted wood props the figure up from behind, allowing this large sculpture—measuring 55" x 26" x 36"—to stand on its own. A smaller, child figure with crossed arms, stands as tall as the woman’s knee. The child is not attached to the larger carving, but is clearly part of the same piece by virtue of attire; the same pink hue as the woman’s bikini, trimmed with the same green. Though bearing the arresting, distinctive expression of much of the artist’s work, this depiction of a person is a rarity in his oeuvre. Archuleta’s work appears in the American Folk Art Museum in New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, and the Milwaukee Art Museum, amongst others.