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- 210425-02 Tony Da Redware with Avaynu
210425-02 Tony Da Redware with Avaynu
3.5" h x 4.5" d
Rounded Redware Pottery Jar Fine Avanyu motif executed in sgraffito.
Tony Da (1940-2008), is one of the most celebrated of the San Ildefonso potters. His work is highly collectible due to its scarcity: Da’s pottery-making career was cut short at age 42 after he was severely injured in a motorcycle accident. Da (pronounced “day”), was raised in the family pottery tradition; he was the grandson of acclaimed potters Maria and Julian Martinez and son of pottery innovator Popovi Da. Tony Da built on this heritage, taking the artform to new heights creating intricate “sgraffito” carvings on the surfaces of the work.
Avanyu (also Awanyu), is a Tewa deity, the guardian of water and is a harbinger of storms; a protector of the Pueblo people. Represented as a horned or plumed serpent with curves suggestive of flowing water or the zig-zag of lightning, Awanyu appears on the walls of caves located high above canyon rivers in New Mexico and Arizona. Avanyu may be related to the feathered serpent of Mesoamerica–Quetzalcoatl and related deities.