*This piece hung in the artist's home, in Albuquerque, above the mantle (according to a friend of the artist)

 

Provenance: Private collection, California

 

Sometimes titled Fancy Dancer with Flag, this John Nieto work speaks to his appreciation of Native American dancers, regalia and movement. Nieto’s paintings were on the cutting edge of contemporary Western art when they were created in their heyday between the 1970s and 1990s, and are still considered quite modern today as his work has found new admirers amid the surge of the New West renaissance. His work has been frequently compared to Fauvism of the early 20th century, with Nieto’s pieces held up against the paintings of French artist Henri Matisse, who also used pure color and abstracted design to push figures and landscapes away from impressionism and into the avant-garde. While his art is touching new audiences today, Nieto was also celebrated during his lifetime, with numerous exhibitions inside and outside the United States. The artist visited Ronald Reagan and presented him a painting in the Oval Office, and had his work on display at U.S. embassies around the world as part of the Art in Embassies program. Dancing in Two Worlds was previously owned by Nieto, who displayed it above his mantle in his New Mexico home.