Dat So La Lee was a Basket Weaver

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The identified artistic career of Dat So La Lee extends from 1895 until her death, very old, in 1925. It provides the earliest and best example of successful collaboration between an American Indian artist (she was a pure Washoe) and a businessman who marketed her work (his name was Abe Cohn).

As a good merchant, Cohn recorded precisely the products he sold, but most of such records were lost. Opinions differ entirely from the shameless exploitation of a great artist to a healthy collaboration. The truth must as always be between the two, but the recognition of the work is attested by the inscription on the tomb of the artist.

Her baskets are executed with great skill, both in form and decoration, always consisting of a set of evenly distributed small abstract patterns.

One of them, estimated 175 K$, will be for sale at Sotheby's in New York on May 20. Collected in 1913, it is 16 cm high, with a swollen belly. The press release from the auction house said that no work of Dat So La Lee went at auction for nearly 20 years.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Unsold. Admit it, it was a bit expensive for a basket, even if it was an exceptional category at auction.