Olla (Water Jar)

Label

Representing artistic depictions of birds spanning over 100 years, these three works reflect the multiple and sometimes fraught relationships between human and non-human beings. Within Acoma and other Pueblo communities, birds—and in this case the parrot or macaw—have long served as connections between people and the gods who live in the upper or sky world. Birds, which can carry messages or prayers for rain, are often depicted on ollas or water jars like the one here, marking a connection between the object’s form and its function.

Walton Ford is known for his meticulously executed images of animals in a style resembling John James Audubon’s naturalistic scenes, such as the wrens at the right of this grouping, with a critical twist. Ford’s print on the left depicts crimson-capped acorn woodpeckers guarding their cache of acorns as the Hollywood Hills are threatened by wildfire. Unlike Robert Havell’s print made from an original drawing by Audubon, Ford’s rendering is more than observational or aesthetic; it gives agency to the avian actors within his complex visual narrative.

From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World,  curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Representing artistic depictions of birds spanning over 100 years, these three works reflect the multiple and sometimes fraught relationships between human and non-human beings. Within Acoma and other Pueblo communities, birds—and in this case the parrot or macaw—have long served as connections between people and the gods who live in the upper or sky world. Birds, which can carry messages or prayers for rain, are often depicted on ollas or water jars like the one here, marking a connection between the object’s form and its function.

Walton Ford is known for his meticulously executed images of animals in a style resembling John James Audubon’s naturalistic scenes, such as the white breasted hawk on the right of this grouping, with a critical twist. Ford’s print on the left depicts crimson-capped acorn woodpeckers guarding their cache of acorns as the Hollywood Hills are threatened by wildfire. Unlike Audubon’s pastel, Ford’s rendering is more than observational or aesthetic; it gives agency to the avian actors within his complex visual narrative.

From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World,  curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Decorated with abstracted floral motifs, these vessels for holding water portray vegetal forms that sprouted from the earth. Like the artists who blew the glass or shaped the silver on display elsewhere in this exhibition, these Indigenous artists took inspiration from the beauty of flowers and incorporated them into their works. The artists who shaped and painted these water jars made them to sell to White tourists in the region.

From the 2024 exhibition Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

NAS 10, ANTH 4, Peoples and Cultures of Native North America, Sergei Kan, Spring 2012

NAS 10, ANTH 4, Peoples and Cultures of Native North America, Sergei Kan, Winter 2013

ARTH 17, The Power of Place: Urban and Rural Images in American Art, 1900-1945, Sarah Powers, Winter 2014

NAS 10, ANTH 4, Peoples and Cultures of Native North America, Sergei Kan, Winter 2015

NAS 10, ANTH 4, Peoples and Cultures of Native North America, Sergei Kan, Winter 2015

ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022

GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022

Exhibition History

Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 18, 2024 - late 2025.

Gene Y. Kim, Class of 1985, Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 16, 1997-August 13, 2000.

Native American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 8, 2011-March 12, 2012.

This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5–July 22, 2022.

Publication History

[Tamara Northern], "Native American Art". Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, page 42. (Published in conjunction with Gutman Gallery opening exhibition)

George P. Horse Capture, Sr., Joe D. Horse Capture, Joseph M. Sanchez, et al., Native American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2011, ill. on p. 104 and p. 151, no. 62.

Provenance

Clara G. Corser Turner Churchill (1851-1945) and Frank Carroll Churchill (1850-1912), Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, 1903-1907; bequeathed to present collection, 1946.

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Subjects