Michael Kabotie

Michael Kabotie
Katobie as artist in residence at Petrified Forest National Park, 2006
Born	September 3, 1942(1942-09-03) Shongopovi, Arizona, USA
Died	October 23, 2009(2009-10-23) (aged 67) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
Nationality	Hopi
Field	Silversmithing, painting, sculpture
Training	University of Arizona, self-taught, family
Influenced by	Fred Kabotie, Joe Hererra

Michael Kabotie (September 3, 1942–October 23, 2009) was a Hopi silversmith, painter, and sculptor.

Background

Michael Kabotie was the son of the famous Hopi artist Fred Kabotie, and he grew up in the village of Shungopavi. Kabotie graduated from Haskell Indian School in Lawrence, Kansas in 1961. While in his junior year, he was invited to spend the summer at the Southwest Indian Art Project at the University of Arizona. Participants included Fritz Scholder, Helen Hardin, Charles Loloma, and Joe Hererra (who became a life long friend and his primary artistic mentor).

Art career

Hopi artist Michael Kabotie made art works for close to fifty years. His father Fred Kabotie helped develop many of the overlay techniques that have come to typify quality Hopi silverwork, and Kabotie learned these techniques as a teenager. He began to paint soon after high school and had a one-man show at the Heard Museum soon after dropping out of college.

In the early 1970s, Kabotie founded a group of painters called Artist Hopid, which was dedicated to new interpretation of traditional Hopi art forms. After that, Kabotie painted, made jewelry, wrote poetry and essays, and lectured around the country. Kabotie’s paintings and silverwork have an organic graffiti-like quality with dynamic motion and symbolism, with a rich color palette on canvas and an added dimension when rendered in silver.

Michael Kabotie lectured across America, in New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland. His works are in such museums as the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, the Museum of Mankind in London, the Sequoyah Research Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the Gallery Calumet-Neuzzinger in Germany.^[1]

Death and legacy

Kabotie died on October 23, 2009 from complications of the H1N1 swine flu in Flagstaff, Arizona.^[2] Michael Kabotie's son Ed Kabotie is also an artist^[3] and musician.^[4]

References

1. ^ Michael Kabotie
2. ^ Ariz. Hopi Artist Dies Of H1N1 Flu. KPHO Phoenix. 25 Oct 2009 (retrieved 26 Oct 2009)
3. ^ Ed Kabotie
4. ^ Ed Kabotie music

Sources and external links

• Artist's website
• Exhibition of Kabotie's work at the Museum of Northern Arizona
• Obituary at Flagstaff Arizona Daily Sun
• Artist Hopid

Persondata
Name	Michael Kabotie
Alternative names
Short description	Hopi silversmith, painter, sculptor and lecturer from Arizona
Date of birth	September 3, 1943
Place of birth	Shungopavi, Arizona
Date of death	October 23, 2009
Place of death	Flagstaff, Arizona