thumb|[[Rangoli, a popular form of Indian sandpainting in Singapore.]]

Sandpainting or drypainting is the art of pouring colored sands, and powdered pigments from minerals or crystals, or pigments from other natural or synthetic sources onto a surface to make a fixed or unfixed sand painting. Unfixed sand paintings have a long established cultural history in numerous social groupings around the globe, and are often temporary, ritual paintings prepared for religious or healing ceremonies.

Drypainting is practiced by Native Americans in the Southwestern United States, by Tibetan and Buddhist monks, as well as Indigenous Australians and Latin Americans for festivals.

thumb|SLNSW 75764 Warriors in Ambush series 49 Aboriginal Mystic Bora Ceremony

History

Native American sandpainting

thumb|Navajo sandpainting, photogravure by [[Edward S. Curtis, 1907, Library of Congress]]

In the sandpainting of southwestern Native Americans (the most famous of which are the Navajo [known as the Diné]), the Medicine Man (or Hatałii) paints loosely upon the ground of a hogan, where the ceremony takes place, or on a buckskin or cloth tarpaulin, by letting the colored sands flow through his fingers with control and skill. There are 600 to 1,000 different traditional designs for sandpaintings known to the Navajo. They do not view the paintings as static objects, but as spiritual, living beings to be treated with great respect. More than 30 different sandpaintings may be associated with one ceremony.

The colors for the painting are usually accomplished with naturally colored sand, crushed gypsum (white), yellow ocher, red sandstone, charcoal and a mixture of charcoal and gypsum (blue). Brown can be made by mixing red and black; red and white make pink. Other coloring agents include corn meal, flower pollen, or powdered roots and bark.

The paintings are for healing purposes only. Many of them contain images of Yeibicheii (the Holy People). While creating the painting, the medicine man will chant, asking the yeibicheii to come into the painting and help heal the patient.

When the medicine man finishes painting, he checks its accuracy. The order and symmetry of the painting symbolize the harmony which a patient wishes to reestablish in his or her life. The accuracy of a sandpainting is believed to determine its efficacy as a sacred tool. The patient will be asked to sit on the sandpainting as the medicine man proceeds with the healing chant. It is claimed the sandpainting acts as a portal to attract the spirits and allow them to come and go. Practitioners believe sitting on the sandpainting helps the patient to absorb spiritual power, while in turn the Holy People will absorb the illness and take it away. Afterward, when the sandpainting has served its purpose, it is considered to be toxic, since it has absorbed the illness. For this reason, the painting is destroyed. Because of the sacred nature of the ceremonies, the sandpaintings are begun, finished, used and destroyed within 12 hours.

thumb|left|Navajo sandpainting, photo by [[H.S. Poley, published c. 1890–1908, Library of Congress]]

The ceremonies involving sandpaintings are usually done in sequences, termed "chants", lasting a certain number of days depending on the ceremony. At least one fresh, new sandpainting is made for each day.

Some Navajo laws and taboos relate to the sandpaintings, and protect their holiness:

  • Women of child-bearing age are not supposed to sing the chants associated with the yeibicheii. This is both because the ceremony has a possibility of injuring an unborn child, and because of a taboo preventing menstruating women from attending. (Some cultures considered menstruation and presence of blood to be powerful spiritual events that had to be restrained, as they represented life forces.) Post-menopausal women are more likely to be chanters or diagnosticians.
  • Authentic sandpaintings are rarely photographed, so as to not disrupt the flow of the ceremony. For many reasons, medicine men will seldom allow outsiders inside a sacred ceremony. Because so many outsiders are curious about sandpainting, some medicine men may create pieces for exhibition purposes only, using reversed colors and variations. To create an authentic sandpainting solely for viewing would be a profane act. The sandpaintings for sale in shops and on the Internet are commercially produced and contain deliberate errors, as the real sandpaintings are considered sacred.
  • The earliest credited instance of traditional Navajo sandpaintings (being rendered in colored sands as opposed to tapestry or other media) being created in a permanent form for sale, have been traced to between 1945 and 1955. The main credit is generally given to a Navajo Hatałii named Fred Stevens, Jr. (Grey Squirrel/Fred Fernando Stevens Jr.)), who developed the primary method of "permatizing" for commercial sandpaintings that is still used.

Indigenous Australian sandpainting

thumb|left|Artwork in Alice Springs

Indigenous Australian art has a history which covers more than 30,000 years, and a wide range of native traditions and styles. These have been studied in recent decades and their complexity has gained increased international recognition. Aboriginal Art covers a wide variety of media, including sandpainting, painting on leaves, wood carving, rock carving, sculpture, and ceremonial clothing, as well as artistic embellishments found on weaponry and also tools. Art is one of the key rituals of Aboriginal culture. It was and still is, used to mark territory, record history, and tell stories about "The Dreaming".

Aboriginal people have taken to transforming their tradition sand paintings into more permanent forms using modern techniques and materials.

Geoffrey Bardon was an Australian art teacher who was instrumental in creating the Aboriginal art of the Western Desert movement, and in bringing Australian indigenous art to the attention of the world."... [directed by Bardon, the elders] began to interact with certain issues in 1960s and 70s international painting, especially the extreme schematization of New York minimalism." In the History of Painting"Lyrical Abstraction in the late 1960s is characterized by the paintings of Dan Christensen, Ronnie Landfield, Peter Young and others, and along with the fluxus movement and postminimalism (a term first coined by Robert Pincus-Witten in the pages of Artforum in 1969) sought to expand the boundaries of abstract painting and minimalism by focusing on process, new materials and new ways of expression."

This connection is seen most obviously in the connection between the paintings from the late sixties of Peter Young (artist) and the paintings that follow in the early seventies produced in the Papunya Tula.

Papunya Tula, or Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, is an artist cooperative formed in 1972 that is owned and operated by Aboriginal people from the Western Desert of Australia. Kaapa Tjampitjinpa is one of the early Papunya Tula artists and is known for Gulgardi. It is notable for being the first work by an Indigenous Australian artist to win a contemporary art award, and the first public recognition of a Papunya painting.

Modern culture

thumb|left|"Asynchronous [[Syntropy" painting using colored sand as seen at The Museum of Arts and Design "Swept Away" exhibit May 2012]]

In modern days, sandpainting is most often practiced during Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico and the United States. Streets are decorated with temporary sandpaintings, symbolizing the fleeting nature of life. Of note are the sandpaintings done during the Seattle Dia De Muertos Festival, but the most exciting development has been the Performance Art of Sand Animation which has created a new wave of younger artists and also revived interest in all types of sandpainting.

A number of contemporary artists use sand in ways that depart from specific cultural traditions exploring techniques by raking sand, pouring it, carving it, creating unique designs. The works are ephemeral and are primarily shared through documentation or part of a live performance.

Many of these artists were included in an exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City titled "Swept Away: Dust, Ashes, and Dirt in Contemporary Art and Design" which was featured in the galleries in 2012. Curator David Revere McFadden described his reasoning for curating the exhibit as wanting to spotlight the work of contemporary artists who specialize in what he described as "unorthodox, unusual, or unexpected materials."

Artist included in the exhibit that use sand and techniques related to sandpainting were: Elvira Wersche, who collects sands from all over the world to create geometric patterned paintings, only to be destroyed as part of a performance. Andy Goldsworthy is known for his ephemeral works using nature, and began sand painting and drawing in 1986, documented the deterioration of a giant ball of sand on the beach packed with bones for the exhibit. Jim Denevan known for his massive raked sand paintings also shared documentation of his process on California beaches. Igor Eskinja used dust to paint an architectural floor plan in the galleries. Cui Fei produces calligraphic works in sand using tradition chak-pur and brushes. Vik Muniz uses dust, chocolate syrup, grains of sand, sugar, caviar, magazines and industrial garbage in a way that reflects sand painting. The rotating exhibit "Swept Away Projects" featured Linda Florence and Joe Mangrum whose works were added to the galleries after removal of previous works. Linda Florence used chalk to stencil patterns onto the floor and often uses various materials like sugar to create installations. Joe Mangrum poured colored sand from his hand for two consecutive days on May 8–9, 2012 he titled "Asynchronous Syntropy" and an outdoor project that acted as a circumambulation of the museum itself. Mangrum worked a total of 24 hours over the span of two days, spontaneously improvising his sandpainting design, only to have it quickly disappear under the bustle of Columbus Circle foot traffic.

Other contemporary artists who work with sand include Andrew van der Merwe, based in Cape Town, who carves calligraphic imagery into the sand on beaches; Andres Amador, an American artist who rakes designs into beaches; Ahmad Nadalian, an Iranian artist who uses natural ground pigments to paint with sand; and Motoi Yamamoto, who makes paintings reflecting typhoons and natural phenomena using salt.

Present-day sandpainting techniques

thumb|upright|Brian Pike's 1985 portrait of [[Margaret Thatcher incorporates magnetized iron filings in the composition]]

Most artists use naturally occurring oxidized and mineral-charged colored sands, adding powdered charcoal to widen the palette and in some instances idiosyncratic materials such as iron filings or discarded stonemasons' dust from ecclesiastical sites. Other artists use industrial tinted quartz sands with a capacity to resist weathering, and a new generation of strong adhesives. The work is protected with a coat of spray varnish. No protective glass frame is needed with the sands and the adhesives since the paintings have proved to resist the effect of direct sunlight without any yellowing of the varnish.

See also

  • Other sandpaintings
  • Kolam
  • Sand mandala
  • Marmotinto
  • Rangoli (Indian sandpainting)
  • Yantra
  • Bonkei (Japanese dry tray landscapes)
  • Process art
  • Sand animation
  • Sand drawing

References

Sources

  • Eugene Baatsoslanii Joe, Mark Bahti, Oscar T. Branson, Navajo Sandpainting Art, (Treasure Chest Publications, Inc, 1978.)
  • Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions International.
  • Villasenor, David. Tapestries in Sand: The Spirit of Indian Sandpainting. California, Naturegraph Company, Inc. 1966.
  • Wilson, Joseph A.P. "Relatives Halfway Round The World: Southern Athabascans and Southern Tarim Fugitives", Limina, 11. 2005. pp. 67–78. URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20060821192325/http://limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/__data/page/90432/wilson.pdf
  • Arthur Morrison. Japanese Sand-Pictures pp. 609–612. Strand Magazine, 1909.
  • G. B. Hughes. Decorating the Georgian Dessert Table. Country Life, May 21, 1959.
  • F.C.H. Marmortinto or Sandpainting. Notes and Queries, pp217/8 11 March 1854 [https://archive.today/20130113090824/http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/content/vols1-IX/issue228/index.dtl]
  • J. Mummery. Marmortinto or Sandpainting.Notes and Queries, pp327/8 8 April 1854 [https://archive.today/20130113065256/http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/content/vols1-IX/issue232/index.dtl]
  • Fred Lee Carter. The "Lost Art" of sandpainting pp. 215–221. The Connoisseur Illustrated, 1927.
  • Fred Lee Carter. Sand Pictures. Notes and Queries, December 8, 1928.[https://archive.today/20130113065539/http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/content/volCLV/issuedec08/index.dtl]
  • E. McCoy. Pictures Painted with Sand. Antiques, March 1936.
  • Bea Howe. Sand Pictures. Homes and Gardens, April 1940.
  • D. A. Ponsonby. A Sand Painter and Morland pp. 111–113. The Connoisseur-American Edition, April 1955.
  • Lt.-Colonel Rybot. Auction of Sand Paintings. Sotherby and Co, June 15, 1956
  • S. Groves. They Painted in Sand. The Lady, January 22, 1959.
  • J. Toller. The Regency and Victorian Crafts. Ward Lock, 1969.
  • C. P. Woodhouse. The Victoriana Collectors Handbook. Bell, 1970.
  • Bea Howe. Antiques from the Victorian Home. Batsford, 1973.
  • J. Field. Victorian Crafts. Heinemann, 1973.
  • Brian Pike sand painter. Painting with Sand-Golden Hands Crafts-vol.70. Marshall Cavendish, 1976.
  • Joyce Eley. Sand Pictures. Wight Life, Oct-Nov. 1974.
  • A. H. Trelawny. Keepsake Castles in the Sand. Country Life, February 2, 1995.
  • Etienne le compte. 1873 - 1973 Oud Zandtapijt published Hekelgem February 1, 1973.
  • Villasenor, David & Jean. How to do Permanent Sand Paintings. Villasenor, David & Jean, 1972.
  • K. Beese. Sand Painting Techniques. Design 60, 1959.
  • P. Nelson. Sandpainting. Creative Crafts, April 1974.
  • Brian Pike. Sand Art.Family Circle Book of Crafts, 1980.
  • Brian Pike. The Craft of Sandpainting.The Craftsman Magazine, 1989.
  • Real sandpainting by "Sand-Show" theater/studio
  • Bonseki Furusato
  • Sandpainting in Hong Kong