Kewa Pueblo Polychrome Pictorial Olla [SOLD]

There is probably no collector of contemporary pueblo pottery who does not know Robert Tenorio or at least aware of him.  He is the best-known potter from Santo Domingo Pueblo.  Robert makes pottery that is as functional as pottery was a hundred years ago.  He makes it for his own table use and makes functional pottery for many other pueblo residents.

Robert attended the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) at the time that Otellie Loloma was a teacher and it was she who convinced him to enroll in ceramics class.  She enrolled him in her class and taught him different techniques, including how to make wheel-thrown stoneware pottery.  Robert has made some stoneware pottery in the past. He is best known, of course, for his traditional coil-formed pueblo pottery.

Robert often demonstrates pottery making and conducts firings for groups of visitors.  He is well known by collectors and many visit him at the pueblo and purchase directly from him.  Robert brought this jar to us at the gallery.  He signed it Robert Tenorio Kewa, N M. 

Robert made this jar in 2011 with the intentions of keeping it for his personal use.  Eventually he found it necessary or desirable to sell it and brought it to the gallery.  It does not show any evidence of having been used as a water jar.

Condition: as new

Provenance: from the artist

Recommended Reading:  A River Apart—the Pottery of Cochiti & Santo Domingo Pueblos by Valerie Verzuh, et al.