Tiger197732 1/2 × 71 × 17"Paint and gesso on cottonwood with strawGift of George H. Meyer2000.17.101540922734P5.2000.012017.1Felipe Benito ArchuletaSculptureCopyright for this work is under review. underbelly 4-26-1977 Tigere F.B.A.'F.B.A'TesuqueTesuqueUnited StatesNew MexicoThree Dimensional WorksTesuqueObject information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information. To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgSculpture and Three Dimensional ObjectsAround 1964, during a difficult period of his life, woodcarver Felipe Archuleta experienced a vision with a heavenly message directing him to carve wood. Believing himself unworthy to follow the southwestern Hispanic santero tradition of carving saints for worship, he used similar materials and techniques to create secular works. His sculptures influenced other carvers, including several family members. Some of his favorite subjects came from the animal kingdom: sheep, pigs, snakes, bears, and exotic jungle animals. His depictions of animals, often transformations of images culled from magazines and books, are imbued with charismatic personalities that range from fierce to whimsical.
Archuleta was born in Santa Cruz, New Mexico. As a child, he worked picking potatoes and chilies and herding sheep; as an adult, he moved to Santa Fe, where he found work as a cook and a musician. The year 1943 held two important milestones for Archuleta. First, he joined the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, a trade union for members of the profession he would follow for the next thirty years. Second, he sold land he had inherited from his grandmother and built a home in Tesuque, where he lived and worked until his death in 1991.
Archuleta used the same material southwestern carvers have worked with for centuries—indigenous soft cottonwood—along with a gesso-like modeling paste and latex paint. He embellished the animal features with bits of leather, rubber tires, straw, and marbles. Tiger, carved in the 1970s, bears the energy and character of Archuleta's early work. A gigantic brush of straw frames the mouth, which opens to reveal a full set of sharp teeth. The animal's ferocity is tempered by an enormous grin and eyes that seem to express wonder more than brutality.
Lee Kogan, "Tiger," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 386.Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information. To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org
Felipe Benito Archuleta, considered to be the "father" of the New Mexican group of animal carvers, created this fierce, striding tiger. Archuleta was born into a large family and, as the eldest child, he worked from a young age and held a variety of odd jobs throughout his early life. In 1935, as the Depression continued to take its toll across the nation, he signed up with the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program that offered employment and housing. It also taught skills in a variety of infrastructure and environmental conservation areas to young men who were then able to send money back to their families. Archuleta returned to New Mexico, taking up residence in Tesuque. When he was thirty-five years old, he joined the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, working in the carpentry trades for the next twenty-four years.
By 1964, after a lifetime of hard work, Archuleta was growing older, jobs were scarce, and he did not know where to turn for help. He recalled praying for guidance out of desperation, for some idea of what to do with the rest of his life, and he received the inspiration to employ his skills in a new and unorthodox fashion, rather than seeking conventional employment. Archuleta dared to imagine the possibilities and found new life as an artist, innovating a type of sculpture based on traditional techniques associated with the santo, or religious figure, but applied to secular subjects and using recycled and found materials in original ways. Archuleta started with simple snakes and ox-drawn wagons. By the 1970s, his work was proving so popular that he had expanded to a menagerie of animals, both wild and tame, large and small, relying on children’s books and magazines such as National Geographic as models for preparatory sketches.
Archuleta used a chain saw to rough out the forms from cottonwood and then applied a variety of carpentry tools to fashion details and shape body parts. Small animals were made from a single piece of wood; larger animals were joined with a mixture of sawdust and glue, the final surface scored or planed to create the texture that he needed. The figure was covered with a coat of white paint and then finished with the final coat. Brooms, rubber combs, rope, wire, and other materials became teeth, whiskers, tongues, manes, and features that bring his animals to life—many with a certain calculated menace, some with a keen sense of humor.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Tigere, 1977" exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgP5.2000.012017.119771977 2000 17 1 Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information. To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgSculpture and Three Dimensional ObjectsAround 1964, during a difficult period of his life, woodcarver Felipe Archuleta experienced a vision with a heavenly message directing him to carve wood. Believing himself unworthy to follow the southwestern Hispanic santero tradition of carving saints for worship, he used similar materials and techniques to create secular works. His sculptures influenced other carvers, including several family members. Some of his favorite subjects came from the animal kingdom: sheep, pigs, snakes, bears, and exotic jungle animals. His depictions of animals, often transformations of images culled from magazines and books, are imbued with charismatic personalities that range from fierce to whimsical.
Archuleta was born in Santa Cruz, New Mexico. As a child, he worked picking potatoes and chilies and herding sheep; as an adult, he moved to Santa Fe, where he found work as a cook and a musician. The year 1943 held two important milestones for Archuleta. First, he joined the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, a trade union for members of the profession he would follow for the next thirty years. Second, he sold land he had inherited from his grandmother and built a home in Tesuque, where he lived and worked until his death in 1991.
Archuleta used the same material southwestern carvers have worked with for centuries—indigenous soft cottonwood—along with a gesso-like modeling paste and latex paint. He embellished the animal features with bits of leather, rubber tires, straw, and marbles. Tiger, carved in the 1970s, bears the energy and character of Archuleta's early work. A gigantic brush of straw frames the mouth, which opens to reveal a full set of sharp teeth. The animal's ferocity is tempered by an enormous grin and eyes that seem to express wonder more than brutality.
Lee Kogan, "Tiger," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 386.Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information. To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org
Felipe Benito Archuleta, considered to be the "father" of the New Mexican group of animal carvers, created this fierce, striding tiger. Archuleta was born into a large family and, as the eldest child, he worked from a young age and held a variety of odd jobs throughout his early life. In 1935, as the Depression continued to take its toll across the nation, he signed up with the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program that offered employment and housing. It also taught skills in a variety of infrastructure and environmental conservation areas to young men who were then able to send money back to their families. Archuleta returned to New Mexico, taking up residence in Tesuque. When he was thirty-five years old, he joined the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, working in the carpentry trades for the next twenty-four years.
By 1964, after a lifetime of hard work, Archuleta was growing older, jobs were scarce, and he did not know where to turn for help. He recalled praying for guidance out of desperation, for some idea of what to do with the rest of his life, and he received the inspiration to employ his skills in a new and unorthodox fashion, rather than seeking conventional employment. Archuleta dared to imagine the possibilities and found new life as an artist, innovating a type of sculpture based on traditional techniques associated with the santo, or religious figure, but applied to secular subjects and using recycled and found materials in original ways. Archuleta started with simple snakes and ox-drawn wagons. By the 1970s, his work was proving so popular that he had expanded to a menagerie of animals, both wild and tame, large and small, relying on children’s books and magazines such as National Geographic as models for preparatory sketches.
Archuleta used a chain saw to rough out the forms from cottonwood and then applied a variety of carpentry tools to fashion details and shape body parts. Small animals were made from a single piece of wood; larger animals were joined with a mixture of sawdust and glue, the final surface scored or planed to create the texture that he needed. The figure was covered with a coat of white paint and then finished with the final coat. Brooms, rubber combs, rope, wire, and other materials became teeth, whiskers, tongues, manes, and features that bring his animals to life—many with a certain calculated menace, some with a keen sense of humor.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Tigere, 1977" exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org