Chatter over the New Heir

LaVerne Nelson Black moved to Taos in the mid-1920s for his health and spent the rest of his short career painting Navajo and Apache subjects in a fast, blocky style built with a palette knife as much as a brush. Native American riders on horseback gather among tipis against a pale blue sky with red mesas behind. A figure in a white hat on a white horse anchors the center. The colors are orange, pink, lavender, and yellow, laid down thick and flat. His signature runs across the lower left.