Blackware Pottery by Maria Martinez
March 17, 2020
Author: Allison Sheridan
Maria Martinez (1887-1980) is perhaps the most famous female Native American artist of the 20th century, a true matriarch of her Pueblo, and is a well-known ceramicist celebrated for her blackware pottery.
Small Plate, 1943-1954 by Maria Montoya Poveka Martinez (San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico, 1887–1980) and Santana Martinez (San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico, 1909–2002). Gift of Carol Grant. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. UM2005.292
Martinez was taught at a very young age how to throw pots and continued to produce pottery until 1970. Revitalizing Pueblo pottery traditions, Martinez’s creative process and artistic development was directly influenced by the shapes, patterns, and colors found in historic pottery of the San Ildelfonso Pueblo established c. 1300 in the region north of modern day Santa Fe.
Blackware vessels, featuring glossy and matte designs like stylized feathers, were traditionally used for water and food storage. The Martinez family achieves the distinctive black color through a fire reduction method that limits oxygen in the kiln and smothers the fire, often with cow or horse dung, to carbonize the pottery.
The blackware pottery of Maria Martinez is one of many highlights of the exhibition Creating a Global Understating in the Christian Petersen Art Museum.
The University Museums’ permanent collection includes Navajo weaving, Native basketry, sculpture, prints, and pottery from the Northeast, Southwest, Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and Canadian tribes. Much was acquired before 1940 by Iowa State College faculty on research trips.
The collection will soon expand with a gift from alumna Joyce Tomlinsen Brewer, adding pottery, basketry, textiles, jewelry, and kachina figures to further the story of Indigenous art.