Ambassador to the world: Santa Fe artist Tony Abeyta honored by State Department

Sep. 20—The U.S. Department of State's Office of Art in Embassies honored famed Santa Fe artist Tony Abeyta with the 2023 U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts on Sept. 13.

The contemporary Navajo (Diné) painter learned about the award a month ago.

"They told me to keep it on the down low," he said. "They were going to have it at a museum in D.C., but then they moved it to the White House."

The medal marks Abeyta's second trip to the White House. He traveled there for a Native American event last year.

The first time, "in a way, a lot of us didn't believe the invitations," he said. "This time, they actually called me, so I believed them."

The week-long visit included trips to the National Gallery of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Rubell Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Library of Congress and various galas and receptions.

"My sister lives in Washington, D.C., so we're going to have dinner," Abeyta added.

First Lady Jill Biden presented the medals at a White House ceremony.

Abeyta is most well-known for his mixed-media paintings and oil landscapes of the American Southwest. His subject matter includes the New Mexico landscape, ancestral Navajo iconography and American Modernism.

He was born into a distinguished family of Diné artists that includes his late sisters, Pablita and Elizabeth, and his late parents, Narciso and Sylvia Shipley Abeyta. Together, his relatives have excelled in painting, pottery, weaving and silversmithing. This important family legacy and history was recently examined and celebrated through the 2022-23 art exhibition "Abeyta: To'Hajiilee K'é" at Santa Fe's Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian.

Abeyta is a previous recipient of the New Mexico Governor's Excellence in the Arts award and has been recognized as a Native Treasure by the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture along with an Honorary Doctorate in the arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts. His artwork has been featured in numerous Art in Embassies exhibitions, and his lithograph "Infinite Wisdom," 2015, was created as part of a collaboration between Art in Embassies and the Institute of American Indian Arts to highlight the diversity and vitality of Native American contemporary art. "Infinite Wisdom" is included in the permanent art collections of the U.S. embassies in Ankara, Turkey; Oslo, Norway; and Niamey, Niger.

The Medal of Arts award was created by Art in Embassies, in partnership with the secretary of state, in 2012 to formally acknowledge artists who have played an exemplary role in advancing the U.S. Department of State's mission to promote cultural diplomacy. Their achievements represent those of thousands of artists who make art diplomacy possible at U.S. embassies around the world. Art serves as a bridge with other nations, encourages discussion and expression, and highlights the communal experience of people from countries, cultures and backgrounds worldwide.

Awards also went to the artists Sheila Hicks, Robert Pruitt, Hank Willis Thomas and Suling Wang.

Previous Medal of Arts recipients include: Jeff Koons (2013), Sam Gilliam (2015), Maya Lin (2015) and Jenny Holzer (2017).

"This year's honorees, like those before them, selflessly offer their creative talents to the mission of American cultural diplomacy," said Megan Beyer, director of art in embassies.

"Artworks on display in embassies and residences are potent soft power tools of diplomacy."