Miniature Seed Jar

Inscriptions

Marks: "Elva Nampeyo" on base, also "#6"

Label

Nampeyo (Hopi-Tewa), one of the most well-known potters of the 20th century, was taught to make utilitarian pottery in the Tewa style by her mother. She learned Hopi decorated-pottery practices from her husband. Drawing on both traditions and working closely with her daughters and granddaughters, whose pottery is also included in this case, Nampeyo created work that has inspired generations of artistic production within her family. On the wall just beyond this case hangs a painting by her great-grandson, Dan Namingha. Notice how the fine linework and shapes from these historic clay forms continue to influence contemporary artistic production more than a century later.

From the 2025 exhibition Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, curated by John Stomberg, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961 Director; Jami Powell, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art; and Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. and Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programing

Exhibition History

Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 26,2025.

Provenance

Trading Post, Polacca, Arizona; sold to Alfred Frank Whiting (1912-1978) for Dartmouth College Museum, 1964.

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Subjects