{{short description|American painter}} {{Infobox person | name = Keats Begay | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|05|17}} | birth_place = Chinle, Arizona | death_date = {{Death date and age|1987|01|05|1923|05|17}} | death_place = | citizenship = Navajo Nation, American | alma_mater = Santa Fe Indian School | occupation = painter }}
'''Keats Begay''' (May 17, 1923 – January 5, 1987) was a Navajo American painter who lived in Chinle, Arizona and was active in the late 1930s.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=King|first=Jeanne Snodgrass|url=https://archive.org/details/americanindianpa00king/page/18/mode/2up|title=American Indian painters; a biographical directory|date=1968|publisher=New York : Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation|others=Smithsonian Libraries|pages=18}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Tanner|first=Clara Lee|url=https://archive.org/details/lee0000unse_y9w1|title=Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art|date=1973|publisher=University of Arizona Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-8165-0309-4|edition=Second }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=White|first=Jon Manchip|url=https://archive.org/details/everydaylifeofno0000whit|title=Everyday life of the North American Indian|date=1979|publisher=London : Batsford|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-7134-0043-4}}</ref> Begay has exhibited his work across the country, including at the National Gallery of Art,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Spencer|first=Anne|url=https://archive.org/details/asseasonsturnsou0000spen|title=As the seasons turn : Southwest Indian easel painting and related arts; an exhibition from the collection of the Newark Museum, May - December 1977|date=1977|publisher=Newark, NJ. : Newark Museum|others=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> and is known for his colorful, flat style paintings. Some of his works are in the permanent collection of institutions including the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Museum of Northern Arizona,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Reporter|first=GABRIEL GRANILLO Sun Staff|title=New MNA exhibit looks at 90 years of artists and donors|url=https://azdailysun.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/new-mna-exhibit-looks-at-90-years-of-artists-and-donors/article_c3a2b678-8754-5daa-88b5-70b7d0071bf2.html|access-date=2021-11-15|website=Arizona Daily Sun|language=en}}</ref> the Southwest Museum of the American Indian and the Museum of New Mexico.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Lester|first=Patrick D. (Patrick David)|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldire0000lest|title=The biographical directory of Native American painters|date=1995|publisher=Tulsa, OK : SIR Publications; Norman, OK : Distributed by University of Oklahoma Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-8061-9936-8}}</ref>
Begay studied at the Santa Fe Indian School.<ref name=":2" /> Begay's work included stylized depictions of colorful landscapes and of everyday life, sometimes integrated with Navajo sandpainting and other symbolic motifs.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brody|first=J. J.|url=https://archive.org/details/indianpainterswh00jjbr|title=Indian painters & white patrons|date=1971|publisher=Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-8263-0192-5}}</ref>
Begay was a long-distance runner, earning a state championship.<ref name=":2" /> He served in the United States Armed Forces during World War II, surviving the Bataan Death March in April 1942 and then spending the remainder of the war as a prisoner of war in Japan.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1943-03-08|title=22 Arizonians Are Listed As Jap Prisoners|pages=3|work=Tucson Daily Citizen|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88993968/keats-begay-pow/|access-date=2021-11-15}}</ref> Begay compared his experience on the Bataan Death March as comparable to the Long Walk of the Navajo in 1864, in which Navajo were forcibly moved to a reservation.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Venables|first=Robert W.|url=https://archive.org/details/americanindianhi0000vena|title=American Indian history : five centuries of conflict & coexistence|date=2004|publisher=Santa Fe, N.M. : Clear Light Publishers|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-1-57416-061-1}}</ref>
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== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Begay, Keats}} Category:20th-century American painters Category:20th-century indigenous painters of the Americas Category:Navajo painters Category:Navajo artists Category:Painters from New Mexico Category:World War II prisoners of war held by Japan Category:1923 births Category:1987 deaths
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