Maria Martinez and Popovi Da San Ildefonso Pueblo Blackware Pottery Jar

Item Details

A Maria Martinez and Popovi Da San Ildefonso Pueblo blackware pottery jar. The black on black jar boasts a geometric band from the mouth to the circumference in polished and matte black. The underside is signed ‘Maria Popovi 466’.

Maria Antonia Montoya (1887-1980), was a Native American artist known internationally for pottery. She was from the San Ildefonso Pueblo, northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico. With pottery skills she learned from her aunt Nicolasa, Martinez and her family experimented with particular techniques that helped protect the cultural art as traditional pottery making methods were being lost. While blackware pottery garnered success, Maria Martinez is considered a true legend behind the pottery. She received many accolades and earned the National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1973 to fund a Martinez pottery workshop. Martinez passed her expertise and wisdom on to many others, including family, other women and students in the outside world. Aside from her aunt, Martinez developed the San Ildefonso style of pottery by studying the works of Sarafina Taoya, neighboring Santa Clara Pueblo pottery matriarch. She married Julian Martinez who assisted her by mostly decorating her wares. While he eventually mastered decorating techniques, he created a process of a slurry of clay and water (slip) that is applied to an already burnished, yet unfired surface. He found that the process of polishing the background first then matte paint decorations in the negative was most effective. After Julian’s death (1943), their son Adam and his wife Santana, gathered clay, coiled, polished, decorated and fired pottery with Maria until 1954. Her son, Tony Martinez, who legally changed his name to his Pueblo name, Popovi Da (Red Fox), began to work with her and they began to co-sign their pieces around 1956. Maria Martinez has signed her works differently over the years including “Marie” 1923-1925, “Marie-Julian” 1925-1943, “Marie-Santana” 1943-1956; “Maria-Santana” 1954-1956, “Maria-Poveka” 1956-1965, and “Maria-Popovi” 1956-1971.

Condition

- wear consistent with age and use; visble wear and scratches.

Dimensions

Item #

17CIN523-091