Artist

Leonard Willeto

born 1955-died 1984
Media - willeto_charlie_with_family.jpg - 90564
Charlie Willeto and family, undated. Digital scan of a damaged Polaroid. Image is courtesy of the Chuck and Jan Rosenak research material, 1990-1999, in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Active in
  • Nageezi, New Mexico, United States
Biography

Leonard Willeto was the son of well-known wood-carvers Charlie Willeto and Elizabeth Willeto Ignacio, and began carving in the 1970s. When he was sixteen years old he was run over by a pickup truck, was permanently disfigured and left school. Willeto carved no more than a hundred dolls before he committed suicide on August 2, 1984 (Chuck and Jan Rosenak, The People Speak: Navajo Folk Art, 1994).

Works by this artist (744 items)

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William Zorach, Seated Girl (with hands under legs), 1930, cast and patinated plaster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Tessim Zorach and Dahlov Ipcar, 1971.449.8
Seated Girl (with hands under legs)
Artist
Date1930
cast and patinated plaster
On view
William Zorach, Mother and Child (study), ca. 1926, plaster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Tessim Zorach and Dahlov Ipcar, 1968.154.153
Mother and Child (study)
Artist
Dateca. 1926
plaster
On view
William Zorach, The Builder (study for Chase Bank), ca. 1960, cast and patinated plaster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Tessim Zorach and Dahlov Ipcar, 1971.449.29
The Builder (study for Chase Bank)
Artist
Dateca. 1960
cast and patinated plaster
On view
William Zorach, Small Head, ca. 1958-1962, carved stone, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Tessim Zorach and Dahlov Ipcar, 1968.154.9
Small Head
Artist
Dateca. 1958-1962
carved stone
On view