Navajo Yei Be Chei Textile Art

Navajo rug flat woven rug tapestry beige Measures: 4' x6' (3'11" x 5'7") 119cm x 170cm Circa 1920 "The woolen rug has a white background color on which are three stylized figures on each side of a center cornstalk. All are surrounded on three sides by a "guardian "figure - one side is the head and the body - the other side are the legs. The rug is a Navajo Yei rug. All the figures are holding prayer sticks; there are feathers attached to the elbows of the figures in a vertical line. The colors of the rug are white, red, maroon, blue, tan, brown, grey, orange, rust and gold. The most common type of Navajo Yei rug are those with a white background color. Navajo Yei rugs were made at Lukachukai or in the Shiprock area or even Ganado. It is a fact that a Navajo Yei rug with many Yei figures and many colors will garner the highest value. While Yei rugs are technically woven for the floor, they were often placed on couches, or hung on the wall like paintings, few actually touched the ground. The Yei figure is a frequently used pattern in Navajo rugs. Male Yei figures are generally pictured with round heads, and female Yei figures with square heads. Modern Yei rugs are more often pictorial compositions, showing a row of front-facing stylized stick figures with a Rainbow Guardian which protects the figures on three sides, indicating the sand painting roots of this particular style. The Yei rug portrays ceremonies on a desire for healing, not only physical health, but also mental, spiritual, and even material well-being. The "Holy People...

A Yei Navajo Figural double-sided flat woven wall hanging - circa 1930. Displaying five standing figures on an deep speckled grey ground, framed by a red border. The Yei iconography is related to Navajo religious sandpaintings. Navajo religion has a reverence for nature and is based on maintaining a balance in the universe. It was believed that there was a sense of harmony needed to maintain a healthy life. Should an individual do something to upset this balance, then it was believed that an illness might befall them. Much like in the modern-day, a medicine man was hired to help regain this harmony. The remedy involved a combination of chanting, herbal medicines and a sandpainting ritual. Various coloured sands were sprinkled on the ground until they formed a specific Yei (holy person), based on the god he was trying to summon. When the sandpainting was completed, it was sanctified by spreading corn pollen over it. Once the sacred sandpainting had served its purpose, it was erased. To save it or reproduce its imagery was dangerous and could bring serious grief to anyone who retained the image. During the 1890s, the Navajos phased out blanket weaving in favour of rugs. There was strong demand from the vast migration of settlers, building homes by the thousands, who needed something to cover their floors. The first Navajo rug depicting holy people...

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