San Ildefonso Free-form Large Pottery Bowl [R]

I always thought of Barbara Gonzales as a traditionalist in making pottery with a slight edge from tradition in her use of designs incorporating spiders and spider webs embellished with turquoise and coral, but now I must accept that she is more innovative than that.  This very large bowl has undulating walls at the rim and is mostly micaceous matte finish with just a small amount of polished black outlining the rim.  Interestingly, Maria’s and Julian’s very first black jars were about the size of this one and they were mostly matte finish with only the serpent featured in polished black.  So, this innovative bowl of Barbara’s draws on the tradition of her great-grandparents.

Barbara Gonzales is an excellent potter and an extension of her famous great-grandmother, Maria Martinez, and her grandparents, Adam and Santana Martinez. Her mother, Anita Martinez, was also a potter. Drawing on the traditions of her family, she expanded this tradition by personalizing her pottery with inlaid coral and turquoise on etched black and sienna wares, often inlaid on spider designs which she created in 1973.

The designs on this jar are the traditional Avanyu (water serpent) etched into the vessel wall with a coral cab for the eye and four turquoise cabs on the plume.  On the opposite side of the vessel are a sgraffito carved terrace and a pre-Columbian style parrot with a turquoise cab for the eye.  This is an extraordinarily beautiful large vessel that borders tradition but displays innovation.

Condition: original condition

Provenance:  from the collection of a family in Santa Fe who purchased it directly from the artist in 2005.

Recommended Reading:  The Legacy of Maria Poveka Martinez by Richard Spivey