In this early abstract landscape, Dan Namingha translates the Southwestern terrain into a language of color, gesture, and form. A single, electric mesa line stretches across the upper third of the canvas, anchoring the composition while activating the surrounding fields of color. Earthy reds, ochres, and deep magenta collide with expressive brushstrokes, evoking land, sky, and movement without settling into literal description. Subtle cues at the top of the painting reveal a nocturnal setting, lending the work a quiet, atmospheric charge.

Created in 1983, the painting reflects a formative period in Namingha’s career, when abstraction became a means of expressing place, memory, and cultural continuity rather than depicting landscape directly. Rooted in Hopi sensibilities yet firmly engaged with modernist painting, the work captures the Southwest as lived experience – felt, remembered, and reimagined – asserting an Indigenous abstraction that is both timeless and unmistakably contemporary.