San Ildefonso Black-on-Black Jar with Feather Design by Blue Corn [SOLD]

Crucita Gonzales Calabaza (1921-1999) Blue Corn was one of the greatest ceramists of all time. She made pottery for over 60 years. Her house was located across the plaza from that of Maria Martinez but there was no competition between the two artisans. She was one of the most honored of 20^th-century potters. She received the 1981 New Mexico Governor's Award (New Mexico's highest artistic award!) and she was acclaimed for her artistic accomplishments in the Wall Street Journal and in AMEPNKA, a Soviet Union journal. She won awards at numerous State Fairs, Santa Fe Indian Market, and other exhibitions.

Blue Corn lived another 20 years after Maria Martinez passed away and by doing so became the most sought after potter at San Ildefonso Pueblo.  Her house was easily accessible and she always welcomed visitors, where she would visit and sell her pottery and those of her children.

Blue Corn was born in San Ildefonso around 1921 and was encouraged by her grandmother, at an early age, to "forget school and become a potter." She did attend school at the pueblo and later at the Santa Fe Indian School, however. At age 20, she married Santiago, a Kewa Pueblo (Santo Domingo) silversmith. During the 1940s, she worked at Los Alamos as a housecleaner for J. Robert Oppenheimer. Shortly after World War II, she took up pottery making and found her calling.

Blue Corn is famous for re-introducing San Ildefonso Polychrome wares which had become a lost product after the blackware of Maria and Julian had become in such demand in the 1920s. She also made blackware and redware but is most often associated with polychrome wares. She was equally accomplished in any of the mediums.

This jar is a standard Tewa shape of the pueblo—wide at the bottom for stability and slanting inward toward the top.  The upper half is decorated with a continuous row of vertical eagle feathers.  Above the design of feathers is a single framing line and below the feathers is a pair of framing lines.  The jar is signed Blue Corn San Ildefonso Pueblo on the underside.

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: currently owned by a client from Oregon who purchased it in 1970 on a trip to Albuquerque.

Recommended Reading: Pueblo Indian Pottery: 750 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf