Jar

Inscriptions

Signed , on bottom: Marie

Label

Native women potters have long been innovators of method and form; this holds especially true of Puebloan ceramics. Maria Martinez gained international recognition in the early 20th century for her perfection of blackware pottery and for creating the black-on-black design technique together with her husband, Julian Martinez. While her artistic practice and fame grew, she continued to draw from the techniques of her predecessors. Mother-and-daughter ceramicists Vangie Tafoya and Helen Tafoya Henderson, relatives of Maria Martinez, continue to experiment with design, contributing to the legacy of creativity for which San Ildefonso Pueblo is known. These works merge both abstraction and realism in their own unique ovoid forms.

From the 2022 exhibition Unbroken: Native American Ceramics, Sculpture, and Design, curated by Dillen Peace '19, Native American Art Intern and Sháńdíín Brown '20, Native American Art Intern 

| Native women potters have long been innovators of method and form, and this holds especially true for Puebloan ceramics. Maria Martinez gained international recognition in the early 20th century for her perfection of blackware pottery together with her husband, Julian Martinez. Most often, Maria formed and polished the elegant vessels and Julian applied the decoration. Therefore, it is likely that pieces now attributed to Maria or Julian were most likely created by both of them. Although Maria and Julian Martinez occasionally created redware vessels or those with colored designs, they are most known for their matte black decorations on polished black surfaces. The popularity of their pottery can be attributed to the ease with which the smooth, geometric shapes matched the art deco style of design of the 1930s and 1940s—or, as Maria simply put it, “Black goes with everything."

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

Course History

NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2021

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Sienna Craig, Winter 2022

Writing Program 5.24, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Winter 2023

Writing Program 5.25, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Winter 2023

Art History 40.02, The American Century, Mary Coffey, Spring 2025

Art History 40.02, The American Century, Mary Coffey, Spring 2025

Exhibition History

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

Celebrating Twenty Years: Gifts in Honor of the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 11-December 12, 2005.

Unbroken: Native American Ceramics, Sculpture, and Design, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 22, 2022-March 12, 2023.

Publication History

Katherine W. Hart et al., Celebrating Twenty Years: Gifts in Honor of the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2005, pp. 60, ill. p. 61, cat. no. 21.

Provenance

Collected by Mary Helena Metz Wiencke (Rowell), in the early 1930's; given to her daughter and son-in-law, Prentiss and Frieda Rowell Carnell, West Sand Lake, New York; given to present collection, 2005.

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