Talent, intelligence and a keen sense of humor guided Harry Fonseca’s journey through life and art. His cultural heritage reflects the historical events of California. His Nisenan Maidu ancestors were among the First Nations of the Sacramento area. In 1839, John Sutter brought 10 Native Hawaiians to work with Nisenan Maidu laborers to construct his fort and the other enterprises he was building. Fonseca’s Hawaiian ancestors were part of this group. It was at Coloma, a Nisenan Maidu village on the American River near Sutter’s saw mill, that gold was discovered in 1848. Fonseca was keenly aware of the tragic results of the gold discovery and took up the theme twice in his journey as an artist.
The exhibit follows some of the paths this talented artist traveled throughout his lifetime and some of the transformations in his art. During the course of his career, Fonseca, who was of Nisenan Maidu, Hawaiian and Portuguese heritages, took up big themes. He typically explored the theme for a time and then moved on to another subject, sometimes returning to the original theme later with new approaches and insights. The Maidu origin story and Maidu tradition, Coyote, the images in petroglyphs that he called “Stone Poems,” and the chaos and devastation of the California Gold Rush are only some of the overarching themes that Fonseca explored.
In the mid-1980s, Fonseca moved from New Mexico back to California, where he transformed his career again, he returned to a previous theme of working with images inspired by California petroglyphs. Fonseca spent time in the early 1990s painting along the American River near the site of the discovery of gold in California. Fonseca’s work underwent another transformation when he delved into design in traditional art from other cultures, such as Navajo blankets, which he depicted with a rapidly painted process. Fonseca said the idea of this was to keep the dignity of the design while making a contemporary statement.
Fonseca moved on yet again to explore several other themes and continued to break new ground throughout the remainder of his life. In 2005, he received an Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art from the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis. Fonseca posthumously received a lifetime achievement award in 2007 from the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts. An artist beloved by many, Fonseca died in 2006.