Intricately Designed Polychrome Pottery Jar by Rondina Huma [SOLD]

This polychrome pottery jar was made by Hopi-Tewa potter Rondina Huma. With this jar, Huma offers a tasteful vessel shape with complex, beautiful designs. It's a low, wide jar with a small base and a larger rim, which allows the viewer to see the polished, cream-toned interior.

On the exterior, Huma created a remarkable composition in black and red. Geometric shapes and ancestral Hopi images are placed around and within one another, forming a dense web of design that somehow avoids feeling cluttered. Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal bands of parallel lines appear, organizing the smaller elements into a cohesive whole. Vertical designs travel through the primary design band, splitting it into four quarters, which echo one another but are not identical. This is outstanding work from a significant Hopi-Tewa potter.

The bottom of the jar is signed Rondina Huma. The signature has been abraded and is faint but legible.

Rondina Huma (1947- ) is a Hopi-Tewa potter who has lived in the village of Polacca since childhood. A member of the Tewa Kachina/Parrot clan, Huma produces her pottery in the traditional method. Her vessels are hand-coiled, painted with mineral paints, and fired outdoors. Her works are inspired by those of her ancestors, but are instantly recognizable as her own. Her complex and beautiful design work—painted with brushes fashioned from yucca leaves—has become as reliable an identifier as her signature itself. Huma has received multiple awards at Santa Fe Indian Market and is regarded by pueblo pottery collectors as one of the finest contemporary Hopi-Tewa potters.

Condition: good condition, wear on base makes signature faint and a few small additional abrasions appear

Provenance: this Intricately Designed Polychrome Pottery Jar by Rondina Huma is from a private collection

Recommended Reading: Hopi-Tewa Pottery: 500 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf

TAGS: Contemporary Pottery, Hopi Pueblo, Rondina Huma