Kokopelli Candlestick Sculpture — Signed Studio Metal, 1991

A striking vintage Southwestern metal sculpture of exceptional presence — a 15-inch dual dancing Kokopelli candlestick holder, hand-signed and dated 1991 on the base, finished in a beautiful rustic textured patina of turquoise-green and copper-rust. Two Kokopelli flute player figures dance in silhouette on a solid metal base, the left figure bearing an integrated single candle holder — a piece that functions equally as sculpture and as a living object, animated by candlelight in a way that few decorative objects can claim. A signed and dated studio work of genuine Southwestern craft provenance.

About Kokopelli

Kokopelli is one of the most ancient and enduring figures in the iconography of the American Southwest — a humpbacked flute player whose image appears in the petroglyphs and pictographs of the Ancestral Puebloan peoples across the Colorado Plateau, dating back over a thousand years. Depicted in profile, bent forward under the weight of his hump, flute raised to his lips, Kokopelli is a figure of extraordinary cultural resonance: a deity of fertility, music, and the harvest; a trickster and a traveler; a bringer of rain, seeds, and song. His image appears across the cultures of the ancient Southwest — among the Hopi, the Zuni, the Anasazi, and their descendants — and has been interpreted by scholars as representing a traveling trader or shaman whose music announced his arrival and whose hump carried the seeds of new life.

In the art of the 20th-century American Southwest, Kokopelli became one of the defining motifs of the regional decorative arts tradition — rendered in pottery, jewelry, textiles, and metalwork by generations of Southwestern artists who found in the ancient figure a symbol of the region's deep cultural roots and enduring creative vitality. A signed and dated studio metal Kokopelli sculpture from 1991 — at the height of the Southwestern decorative arts revival — is a piece of genuine regional art history.

Details

• Design: Dual dancing Kokopelli flute player figures; left figure with integrated single candle holder
• Material: Solid metal
• Finish: Rustic textured patina — turquoise-green and copper-rust
• Height: Approx. 15 inches
• Signed: Hand-signed and dated 1991 on the base
• Style: Southwestern / Native American-inspired studio metalwork

Condition

Sturdy vintage condition with no structural damage. Natural weathering throughout — an integral and beautiful aspect of the piece's rustic character. Please review all high-resolution photos carefully as they form part of the condition description.

Comparable Market Value

$125 — based on current sold listings on eBay and Etsy for signed and dated vintage Southwestern studio metal Kokopelli sculptures in excellent condition.