Ignatius Palmer (American, 1904-1992)
Deer, 1978
Watercolor on paper
8.5 x 11.5 in
Gift of Carol Quillen, 18th President of Davidson College, and George McLendon
While working a shift in the Galleries’ offices where I returned some art to the storage racks, my eyes were drawn to a specific piece. Two blue-tinted mule deer, identifiable by their black-tipped tails and gray muzzles, gallivant through a fragmented environment reminiscent of early Safavid paintings. Deer are my favorite animal, and to see them depicted in such natural movement yet beautifully stylized really pleased my soul. The colors, cool yet bright, remind of a landscape just after sunset – it’s incredible how the artist manages to suggest so much about the landscape in the absence of much of it from the paper. It’s a piece that reminds me of my time trekking last winter break in Arizona, hiking alongside mule deer that would frolic away at the slightest of sounds.
The artist, Ignatius Palmer, was a Mescalero Apache artist born in 1922. He attended the Santa Fe Indian School and began painting as early as 1939. Most of his work was exhibited from 1957 to 1962 at a tribal center near his home. His works were mainly completed in gouache or watercolor, and feature both animals and dances important to his Indigenous culture. He died in 1985 after a life of prioritizing painting alongside the “duties and distractions of reservation life.”
The landscape and animal life on the reservation where Palmer lived in New Mexico likely contributed to his worldview. Regarding Deer in particular, the spindly desert trees, rocky ridges, and tranquil hues coalesce to represent a desert landscape at dusk. Though so much remains unrevealed, attributed to the plain paper background to the destination of the galloping deer, this aspect of the painting reads not as a drawback, but as a strength. Our attention is focused instead on the natural, lithe physique of the two deer, and the beautifully shaded land upon which they run.
I’m grateful to have spotted this piece in collection storage, considering it resonated deeply with my experience of growing up in rural America. The simplicity of representing nature through one’s own stylistic vision holds a beauty that I’ll never grow tired of.
– Courtney Lassiter ’27