Avanyu Fighting

Artist Soqween Peña 1902 - 1979 San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico

Date1975

Mediumwatercolor on paper

Dimensions27 7/8 × 32 1/16 × 1/16 in. (70.8 × 81.4 × 0.2 cm)

ClassificationsDrawings, Pastels & Watercolors

Object numberPC1975.42.1

DescriptionA watercolor painting depicting two avanyu, a Puebloan water deity in the form of a serpent, fighting. At the bottom of the composition, the two avanyu face towards each other with their bodies wrapped around one another. The avanyu are pale yellow with white, curved horns, arrow-shaped red tongues, short feet, and long bodies. Below the two is a small rainbow over a raincloud, depicted as three stacked semicircles. Above the avanyu is a geometric "X"-shaped form, painted in yellow-orange, red, and pale cyan, with small black and white feathers hanging off it. This form is connected with a gray line to a wide rectangular form, inside of which are two black canines with heartlines and two cyan stepped motifs, arranged symmetrically. Two red and pale yellow curved, horn-like forms extend downwards from either side of the rectangle. Two similar, pale cyan forms curve upwards and meet the yellow forms from either side of the fighting avanyu.

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