Golden Dawn Gallery

Photo: Cradoc Bagshaw

Helen Hardin (1943 - 1984) Tsa-sah-wee-eh, (Little Standing Spruce), was one of the most significant women in the American Indian art world, second only to, and at the side of, her mother - Santa Clara Pueblo Artist Pablita Velarde. Hardin established herself as one of the first female Native American Artists to cross over into a contemporary modern style and gain international acceptance and recognition. Hardin's style, instantly recognizable and intensely captivating, emerged from a look similar to her mothers paintings and developed through a cubist period and finally into the abstract yet spiritual work that she became famous for. Truly one of the most important American Indian painters of the twentieth century, her career was cut short when she died of breast cancer in 1984 at age 41. Helen was mother to well-known abstract expressionist artist Margarete Bagshaw, owner of Golden Dawn Gallery.