Harry Fonseca

Maidu, 1946-2006

BiographyFonseca is well known for his creation of the always-smiling, supremely self-confident “Coyote” and “Rose” over 30 years ago. Both have played a central role in Fonseca’s work and have become popular icons in the process. Fonseca’s Coyote and Rose can be found in restaurants, museums, opera houses and chamber music festivals the world over.

Throughout his life-long career as an artist, Harry Fonseca’s work went through a number of transformations but his open attitude towards new influences and sources of inspiration was constant. Fonseca was born in 1946 in Sacramento, California, and his earliest drawings, prints and paintings drew from his Maidu heritage. He was influenced by basketry designs, dance regalia, and by his participation as a traditional dancer.

Harry Fonseca came to be known late in his career for beautiful and meditative abstract work. Like the abstracted American landscapes revealed in central California basketry, Navajo blankets and minimalist painting, Fonseca’s abstractions were often distilled into large canvases of rhythmic, vibrating horizontal bars of color and tonal contrast. The series began in 1989 with “Navajo Blankets” and continued until his last paintings of the Grand Canyon in 2006. He also created two other abstract series that were more spontaneous and flowing through his use of dripping paint; these he titled “Seasons.” He created his last “Seasons” series in the spring of 2006.

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