Jar

Elsie Routzen, American, Acoma Pueblo (Aco-Mah), 1934 - 2002
Acoma Pueblo (Aco-Mah)
Southwest

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collected in 1970s-1980s

Terracotta with slip decoration

Overall: 7 3/16 × 7 3/16 × 7 5/16 in. (18.2 × 18.2 × 18.5 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Putnam W. Blogett, Class of 1953, Tuck 1961

2013.91.3

Geography

Place Made: Acoma Pueblo, United States, North America

Period

20th century

Object Name

Pottery

Research Area

Native American

Native American: Southwest

On view

Inscriptions

Signed, on the bottom, E.P. Routzen / Acoma N.M.

Label

Inspired by a long history of women potters working in her community, Elsie Routzen modeled this terracotta jar based on a traditional form. The design portrays abstracted spinach leaves, a vitamin-rich, leafy green vegetable. To create the darker decoration, Routzen ground up spinach leaves and used them as an artistic material. Spinach represents itself in an abstracted form. With spinach as material and decoration, Routzen demonstrates the close connections and interdependence between art, food, and water.

From the 2023 exhibition Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2023

Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2023

Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2023

Art History 40.01, American Art and Identity, Mary Coffey, Fall 2023

Creative Writing 10.02, Writing and Reading Fiction, Katherine Crouch, Fall 2023

Geography 11.01, Qualitative Methods, Emma Colven, Fall 2023

Geography 2.01, Introduction to Human Geography, Coleen Fox, Fall 2023

Geography 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Fall 2023

English 30.01, African and African American Studies 34.01, Early Black American LIterature, Michael Chaney, Winter 2024

Writing 5.06, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Winter 2024

Writing 5.07, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Winter 2024

Exhibition History

Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, Israel Sack Gallery and the Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 29, 2023-November 24, 2024.

Provenance

Collected by Putnam W. Blodgett (1931-2020), Lyme, New Hampshire, about 1970s-1980s; given to present collection, 2013.

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