Kewa Polychrome Small Pottery Jar of the Aguilar Style by Robert Tenorio [SOLD]

Two sisters at Santo Domingo Pueblo developed a style of decorating pottery that used large areas of black, outlined with thin lines of cream slip, and another style that used large areas of black and red, outlined too with thin lines of cream slip. The sisters are known as the Aguilars and, of course, their pottery is known as the Aguilar style. Following their retirements or deaths around 1915, their style of pottery was confined to the shelves of Julius Seligman, the trader at the pueblo. No one else seemed to pursue it.

Sometime, probably in the mid 20th century, Santana Melchor, also of Santo Domingo, revived, on a small scale, the Aguilar pottery style. There is an example of one of her pieces on display at the Museum of Indian Art and Culture in Santa Fe. Sometime in the 1980s, Robert Tenorio experimented with the style too. This jar is an example of one of his smaller pieces.

Robert is indisputably one of the finest potters of the late twentieth century from Santo Domingo Pueblo. He has never stopped experimenting, learning, and trying. He has tried numerous plants as a source for the black paint, and he has tried numerous clays for the cream slip. Some work, some don't, but he never tires of trying.  Robert has been a student of pueblo pottery for a number of years, studying professionally at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and on his own. He has studied styles, clays, slips, designs and forms. He has mastered the techniques of producing functional, usable pottery for his own use and the use of other members of the pueblo.

Condition: excellent condition
Provenance: from the collection of a Virginia resident who is downsizing

Relative Links: Southwest Indian Pottery, Kewa - Santo Domingo Pueblo, Contemporary Pottery, Robert Tenorio, Andrea Ortiz, Lupe Tenorio