Raymond C. Yazzie working at Tanner’s Indian Arts, c. 1974.
Lee A. Yazzie photographed at Tanner’s Indian Arts Gallery, c. 1975.
“HIS METALWORK IS UNIQUE, TOTALLY MADE BY HIS OWN HANDS WITH NO SHORTCUTS IN QUALITY. HIS MOSAIC INLAY COMPLEMENTS THE METALWORK [BUT] DOES NOT DISTRACT. ITS BALANCE IS SUBLIME.”
LEE A. YAZZIE
“Lee is absolutely one of the finest goldsmiths and silversmiths that there is today. Lee really doesn’t know the example he has set for us…. I think he was humbled to realize that he is one
of our most important leaders.” – Jesse Monongya, Navajo/Hopi jeweler
Lee Yazzie is a perfectionist. Always seeking to improve his work, he’s uncomfortable with being referred to as a “master,” though it is clear he has attained this status. “That is what I have tried to do in my life: to always try to make the next piece better.” Deeply inspired by traditional Navajo designs, he has become known as a master silver-worker and lapidary artist. Yet, Lee never intended to be a jeweler. His first aspiration was to complete a college education and become an accountant. Yazzie’s plans were interrupted during his
first year in college in the late 1960s by the stresses on a congenital malformation of his hip. He was forced to withdraw from school for
surgery. “While recuperating from the hip op- eration, I turned to silver-smithing to help my mother, who was responsible for taking care of all the younger children. I made silver beads for her squash blossom necklaces,” says Lee. By this time Chee and Elsie Yazzie had
divorced and Elsie and the children had relo- cated to Gallup. Elsie and her daughters had started to work in the store of a local trader, Joe Tanner, in addition to producing jewelry for sale. Lee also began working at Tanner’s Indian Arts, which gave him the opportunity to work with and learn about better-quality turquoise. Eventually he began to collaborate with a fellow worker, Preston Monongye, a Hopi artist whom he sought out as a mentor. Lee stayed at Tanner’s for six years, until 1975. For many of these years, he was frustrated
because of his unfulfilled ambition to finish college and become an accountant, and sim- ply worked for the immediate income. “I wish I understood before what I really had,” he says. “I would have been even better.” Despite his personal dissatisfaction, dur- ing the 1970s and 1980s Lee’s reputation grew among collectors. He left Tanner and eventually began working with Gene Waddell,
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 71
PHOTO COURTESY JOE AND CINDY TANNER
PHOTO COURTESY JOE AND CINDY TANNER
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100
