Santa Clara Pueblo Black-on-Black Lidded Pottery Jar by Dolores Curran [SOLD]

This exceptional blackware lidded pottery jar was created by Santa Clara Pueblo artist Dolores Curran.  Its shape is like that of a pueblo OLLA, but in miniature.  The jar has a lid, from which a rectangular post emerges.  It is an elegant little vessel that was clearly crafted by remarkably skilled hands.  The lid fits into the vessel perfectly, with its rounded edge lining up precisely above that of the vessel’s rim.

Curran’s design work is elaborate and beautiful.  Corn designs are carved into the lid’s rectangular post and appear again in a circle around the jar’s shoulder.  A line with raised circles and triangles separates the circle of corn from the lower design band, which circles the jar’s widest point.  This band features a wonderful combination of corn, kiva step, and rain cloud designs.  All these designs are carved into a matte black surface.  Down below, the polished black finish matches that of the lid and rim.  A pair of painted designs in the traditional black-on-black style appear on the bottom, pointing in toward Curran’s signature.  This is an excellent piece with skillfully executed unique designs.

The bottom of the jar is signed Dolores Curran, Santa Clara Pueblo.

Dolores Curran (1954- ) is originally from Santa Clara Pueblo, but has lived at Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo since her marriage several years ago. Curran is the daughter of Usulita Naranjo and sister of Geri Naranjo. She works in miniature scale and has done so since first making pottery at the age of 9. She does not maintain a record of designs because, as she states, she does not want to repeat her designs. Each piece of pottery is unique. She creates the design for each piece as she works on it.

“In 1993, Dolores Curran was interviewed by New Mexican reporter Mark Oswald.  She recounted how her family united their efforts to bring back their pottery making tradition.  Her great-grandmother was a potter.  Her grandmother ‘knew how to mix the clay’ and enough to pass the tradition on to the younger generation.  Her mother had a book of San Ildefonso designs [probably Kenneth Chapman’s ‘The Pottery of San Ildefonso’].  Dolores talked about her determination to expand beyond the designs in the book. ‘You can’t stay at the same point forever.  My mother had a book of designs, but through the years I kind of came up with my own.  You have to go on and develop your own designs.” [Schaaf, 2000:19]

Condition: excellent condition

Provenance: this Santa Clara Pueblo Black-on-Black Lidded Pottery Jar by Dolores Curran is from a private New Mexico collection

Reference: Pueblo Indian Pottery 750 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf

Relative Links: Santa Clara Pueblo, Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, Geri Naranjo, Ursula Curran, Dolores Curran, Santa Clara Pueblo Potter