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The Story of Maria Martinez and the Famous Black on Black Pottery

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San Ildephonso black pottery made by Maria Martinez (1887 - 1980), her husband (?-1943), children and family members Popovi Da, Santana, Adam has become internationally recognized as "fine art pottery".  Most of the Black-on-Black examples for which Maria became so well known for were made by Maria, and painted by a family member as Maria did no painting on pottery. "All too briefly it may be said that Southwestern pottery arose from undecorated mud-daubing applied to baskets to make of them fireproof cooking vessels.  The craft developed through phases of imprinted and incised decoration on unsupported vessels and reached its ceramic peak in the fine panted wares of teh Classic Pueblo period about 1100 A.D.  The wares then retrogressed artistically but advanced technically to the use of glaze paints in the century preceding the Spanish conquest, and declined sharply in the years between 1540 and 1915.  In the latter years, a revivalistic movement which had started about 1895 crystallized as an economically important factor when Indian pottery became salable in the white market.  The great increases in economic activity in the craft largely owes its impetus to the efforts of Maria Martinez and her husband, Julian." (Alice Marriott, Maria: The Pottery of San Ildephonso, Norman" University of Oklahoma Press, 1948, p. xv). 

"Maria Montoya Martinez was born, probably, in 1887 (died July 20, 1980); she had no positive record of the year.  Her birth was in a small, remote village at a time when the population of the town was largely self-sustaining.  Part of her girlhood was spent in St. Catherine's Indian School in Santa Fe.  Her young womanhood was a struggle for survival, with her husband working at such odd jobs as he could find.  Then, through her mastery of the old Pueblo craft of pottery, she found an economic way you -- first for her family and then for her village.  Through the ensuring years, while the population of San Ildephonso declined from about 150 persons to not more than 80, she became the most economically secure person in her group.  Her success, example, and assistance were the incentives through which other women gained skill as crafts workers and other families became financially independent." (Ibid, pg. xix). Maria Martinez revived the ancient Pueblo craft of pottery making and stimulated interest in Southwestern Pueblo pottery among both white people and Indians. "Maria Montoya Martinez, or Marie Martinez ... is a woman who has became in her own lifetime a legend. She lives ... as closely as she could make it, the normal life of a woman of her culture, her unusual qualities have set her apart and gained her fame throughout the world.  However, distressing problems accompanied success and fame.  Liquor ultimately wrecked Julian.  There was dissension within the pueblo and there was the succession of admiring white people who invaded her home and interrupted her work. Not least, in Maria's view, was the departure of her own children from many Pueblo customs.  Inextricably woven into the story of Maria is the story of the pottery of the Southwestern Pueblos, a native craft that has become a national art interest, including the development of the unique black-on-black ware by Julian." (Ibid., jacket cover). 

In 1904, Maria married Julian.  She accompanied him that year to the World's Fair in St. Louis, where they lived for four or five months in an Indian village that was part of the Fair's exhibit. Julian learned a little English there. "All Maria had to do was to sit and make pottery, and sometimes dance.  She made little bowls and ollas, not anything big and fancy, and she left the pieces plain, without designs on them, because the white people seemed to like the plain polished red bowls. (Ibid. pg 210).  Upon returning to San Ildephonso, among Julian's odd jobs was laborer for an archaeological study.  "Excavation of the archaeological sites on the Pajarito Plateau was begun by the school of American Research, under the direction of Dr. E.L. Hewitt, in 19070, and was continued through the summer of 1910.  During these years, Julian Martinez was one of the Indians employed as laborers on the digs..  Dr. Hewett, in order to settle some of the technical questions that had arisen in connection with pottery excavated from the sites asked Julian's wife, Maria, to duplicate a particular potsherd, using the method of pottery-making then employed in San Ildephonso. The invention of black-on-black pottery came much later, possibly during the autumn or winter of 1919." (Ibid., p.xiii). 

In 1908, pottery-making in San Ildephonso was on a low level. Women women made vessels for home use, or traded their work to Indian and Spanish neighbors.  There were few cash sales to outsiders, although some polychrome specimens now in museums collections were acquired during this period.  None of them has been identified as Maris's work.  During the years between 19008-1912, there was a small-scale development of pottery as a home industry.  All known work from this period is polychrome ware.  That made by the Martinez family was usually decorated by Julian, although a few pieces have been identified by Maria as her own painting.  The first sale of pottery at the Museum of New Mexico, and the first employment of Maria as a demonstrator at the museum, under the sponsorship of the Dr. Edgar L. Hewett took place during these years.  First sales to curio shops also occurred at this time.

Development of plain black pottery and San Ildephonso can be traced to about 1912.  Plain black wares were known  in the northern Rio Grande pueblos at a much earlier date, and it is hardly likely that the invention at San Ildephonso was spontaneous.  What probably happened was that Maria and Julian were the first to develop a plain black ware that was salable to outsiders.  Work at the 1915 Panama - California Exposition, took Maria and Julian to San Diego, California.  At this time they perfected a method of making large vessels. Large storage jars had been fairly common in the pueblos since prehistoric times, but Maria and Julian had previously concentrated their own efforts on the making of smaller pieces which would be more salable to white purchasers.

 In about 1919 came the discovery of the method of making black-on-black  pottery by Julian.  The exact date is hard to fix.  Maria herself said that it happened "between Juan and the little boy who died" (1915-1918), (Ibid.)  The first recorded sale of a piece of pottery of this type, as published  in the Museum of New Mexico bulletin, El Palacia, took place in the spring of 1920.  Between the years of 1919 and 1921, the process of making black-on-black pottery was kept secret by Maria and Julian.  From 1921 to 1922, they began teaching the black-on-black method to other potters in San Ildephonso, and development of pottery-making rose to a full-time industry of major economic importance for the pueblo as a whole.  In 1923 to about 1926 saw the beginning of the use of signatures.  during this period it is difficult to assign exact dates to pottery specimens, as there were no marked changes in the styles or methods used.  According to Maria's statement, she first signed her own name, afterwards her and with Julian's, and subsequently her name with her children's.  Not all piece have signatures.  Some museum specimens know to have been bought from Maria during these years are unsigned.  One piece, in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History, is signed with Maria's Indian name.  By 1926 the custom of signing the work was well established and had been adopted by other potters working in San Ildephonso and  nearby pueblos.  In 1934, Maria spent the summer at Chicago's Century of Progress Exposition, making and selling pottery.  That fall she traveled with representatives of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs.  Maria returned to the  Pueblo in the winter because of the enactment of the Indian Rights act and Julian's participation in its administration.  For many years Maria continued demonstrating her pottery-making at such fairs as the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition,  San Francisco. 

During the 1970s Maria taught blak pottery-making methods at the University of Southern California Idyllwild School of Arts and Crafts.  She continues to participate in the customs of her tribe, and as late as 1972, historian Vincent Scully witnessed Maria participating in the Snowbird Dance with the women of San Ildephonso in honor of a child. (Vincent Scully, Pueblo: Mountain, Village, Dance, New York: The Viking Press, 1972, p. 157).  By the time of her death, she was world-famous as an artist, instructor and historian of her people's ancient craft.  

Bibliographic references include: American Art Annual, Vol 1-31 (1898-1934), Washington, D.C.; H.J. Spinden, Fine Arts and the First Americans, New York: 1931; Patricia Pate-Havlice, Index of Artistic Biography, Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, 1981; Frederick J. Dockstader, Indian Art of the Americas, New York; Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1973. 


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