Dorothy Dunn was a pioneering art instructor with a great deal of influence over the development of Native American art in the 20th century. Schooled in Chicago, Dunn came to New Mexico in the mid-1920s to develop The Art Studio at the Santa Fe Indian School. Among her students were Allan Houser, Ben Quintana, Harrison Begay, Joe H. Herrara, Quincy Tahoma, Andy Tsihnajinnie, Pablita Velarde, Eva Mirabel, Tonita Lujan, Pop-Chalee, Oscar Howe, and Geronima Cruz Montoya.

Dunn taught art to her Native American students with strict rules – figurative formalism in style, tribal identification in subject matter. At the time, art collectors and curators alike were looking for historicized paintings that depicted pastoral scenes of a pre-genocide Native America.

External links

• Information on Dorothy Dunn
• Primitive Art and Dunn