A blackware bowl with black on black decoration. The bowl is nearly spherical in profile, with a narrow and wide mouth. Around the upper half is a feather design, which looks like individual feathers hanging down from the mouth forming a ring around the circumference.
Subject Matter
A fusion of traditional Pueblo pottery techniques with art deco detail, within a black on black art object.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
A skilled potter, Martinez spent the majority of her life making and teaching three generations of her family to make pots. In collaboration with her husband, Julian Martinez, she studied and recreated ancient ceramics, experimenting with firing and finishing techniques and producing vessels with a unique ebony finish. Martinez reintroduced to her people the art of pottery making, which was facing extinction, and her style became world famous.
Coiled, smoothed, and shaped by Maria, this pot has a swollen belly that yields at either end to a tapered lip and foot. The vessel has been carefully burnished, a process by which a smooth stone is rubbed against the pot’s surface prior to firing in order to align the clay particles. As a result the fired pots are lustrous and have a glossy sheen. The contrasting matte effect is achieved by painting slip (liquid clay) onto the pot after it has been burnished. In accord with the traditional division of labor, Julian usually applied decorative elements after Maria had completed the vessel. He called the geometric design of this pot “stylized feathers.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
A blackware bowl with black on black decoration. The bowl is nearly spherical in profile, with a narrow and wide mouth. Around the upper half is a feather design, which looks like individual feathers hanging down from the mouth forming a ring around the circumference.
Subject Matter
A fusion of traditional Pueblo pottery techniques with art deco detail, within a black on black art object.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
A skilled potter, Martinez spent the majority of her life making and teaching three generations of her family to make pots. In collaboration with her husband, Julian Martinez, she studied and recreated ancient ceramics, experimenting with firing and finishing techniques and producing vessels with a unique ebony finish. Martinez reintroduced to her people the art of pottery making, which was facing extinction, and her style became world famous.
Coiled, smoothed, and shaped by Maria, this pot has a swollen belly that yields at either end to a tapered lip and foot. The vessel has been carefully burnished, a process by which a smooth stone is rubbed against the pot’s surface prior to firing in order to align the clay particles. As a result the fired pots are lustrous and have a glossy sheen. The contrasting matte effect is achieved by painting slip (liquid clay) onto the pot after it has been burnished. In accord with the traditional division of labor, Julian usually applied decorative elements after Maria had completed the vessel. He called the geometric design of this pot “stylized feathers.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
A shallow stoneware bowl banded with a design in the traditional Southwest style. The bowl is tan embellished with patterns in shades of black and reddish brown.
Subject Matter
A bowl in the style and design of the Native American Southwest.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
Num-pa-yu or Nampeyo, meaning “snake that does not bite,” was the Tewa name of a prolific and exceptional potter who became very interested in early Hopi pottery form and designs when the ancient site of Sityátki was excavated in the 1890s. Using shards she found at the site and detailed reconstruction drawings produced by archeologists, she developed her own style based on traditional designs. She has been credited with a revival of older designs and the birth of the new Hopi pottery movement now known as Hano Polychrome. By end of her life she was one of the Hopi Pueblo’s most renowned potters and drew huge numbers of tourists to her workshop; her influence led to a renewal of pottery making among the Hopi.
As Nampeyo’s eyesight began to fail, around the year 1925, her daughters Fannie and Annie helped to decorate and fire the pots their mother coiled and scraped by sense of touch until her death in 1942. For this reason, it is difficult to ascribe one attribution to vessels produced during this period.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
A deep bowl with a wide mouth made of black earthenware. The upper half of the bowl is decorated with a horizontal and diagonal design in a lighter shade of black and rougher texture than the smooth black surface.
Subject Matter
A beautiful, functional object made by an award-winning artist from the Santa Clara Pueblo people.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
Part of a long line of exceptional potters, Legoria Tafoya produced pottery using traditional techniques. The process began with clay, dug from a location known to her family, mixed with a tempering agent to decrease the potential for cracking and promote even firing. No potter’s wheel was used to make her vessels; they were formed using the coil technique, in which long snake-like coils are circled around the base and then blended to make walls. The vessel is then smoothed and shaped using pieces of gourd. After it partially dries, it is scraped to refine the shape and surface, and then sanded. Slip (liquid clay) is applied and then burnished with a smooth stone before firing to give a lustrous surface. Next decoration is painted on, which results in matte areas when fired. The black color of the pot comes from clay unique to the reservation, whose high iron content turns black when fired. First wood and dried cow manure are piled around an iron grill and lit on fire; this is then smothered with ash or fresh manure, producing a smoke-filled reducing atmosphere that blackens the pot.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Limestone slab carved bas-relief with six registers. The lower register depicts a chariot procession above fish-inhabited waters. The central three registers depict figures carrying out funerary rites. The top register shows a winged creature with a human face flanked by two writhing dragons and other animals, including two rabbits and a nine-tailed fox.
Subject Matter
This magnificent carved limestone slab was originally part of a memorial hall or tomb. It portrays the vertical ascent of the soul of the deceased from earth toward the “Happy Homeland” or heavenly abode of the Queen Mother of the West.
On the lower register of the carving, the soul of the tomb occupant rides in a chariot procession. The fish-inhabited waters indicate his earthly surroundings. In the central three registers the family and friends of the deceased are shown carrying out the proper funerary rites that will insure the success of his journey. The Queen Mother herself, shown as a winged creature with a human face, dominates the top row. She is flanked by two writhing dragons and other heavenly immortals, including two rabbits, who reside on the moon and are shown pounding rice cakes, and an auspicious nine-tailed fox, associated with the sun.
The Queen Mother of the West was the subject of a very popular cult during the Eastern Han Dynasty, when concerns about immortality reached a new and feverish pitch.
Label Copy
This magnificent carved limestone slab was originally part of a memorial hall or tomb. It portrays the vertical ascent of the soul of the deceased from earth toward the “Happy Homeland” or heavenly abode of the Queen Mother of the West.
On the lower register of the carving, the soul of the tomb occupant rides in a chariot procession. The fish-inhabited waters indicate his earthly surroundings. In the central three registers the family and friends of the deceased are shown carrying out the proper funerary rites that will insure the success of his journey. The Queen Mother herself, shown as a winged creature with a human face, dominates the top row. She is flanked by two writhing dragons and other heavenly immortals, including two rabbits, who reside on the moon and are shown pounding rice cakes, and an auspicious nine-tailed fox, associated with the sun.
The Queen Mother of the West was the subject of a very popular cult during the Eastern Han Dynasty, when concerns about immortality reached a new and feverish pitch.
Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
Exhibited in "Flora and Fauna in Chinese Art," April 6, 2002 - December 1, 2002.
The Han imagination was simultaneously down-to-earth and preoccupied with immortality and other- worldly spirits. While the inexpensive mortuary pottery in the large wall case testifies to Han practicality, this carved limestone slab illustrates Han flights of fancy.
This magnificent square-shaped frieze was originally part of a memorial hall or tomb. Its seven horizontal registers portray the vertical ascent of the soul from the watery netherworld on the lowest register to the “Happy Homeland” or heavenly abode of the Queen Mother of the West at the top. In the widest register, above the watery netherworld of six swimming fish, is a burial procession lead by an ox cart—an accurate depiction of Han dynasty burial practice for the elite. The central three registers portray groups of mourners, performing rituals to send the deceased properly into the afterlife. The Queen Mother herself, shown as a winged creature with a human face, dominates the top register. She is flanked by two writhing dragons and other heavenly immortals, including a pair of rabbits who reside on the moon pounding rice cakes of immortality, and an auspicious nine-tailed fox, associated with the sun and magic.
The Queen Mother of the West appears in Chinese texts as early as the tenth century BCE of the Zhou dynasty (1027-256 BCE), but her cult became popular during the Eastern Han dynasty, when the desire for immortality reached a feverish pitch.
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
A squat, gracefully rounded pot with a mouth that is slightly smaller than the widest circumference of the pot, and a tapered base. The interior is colored white. There is a band of black along the brim. The exterior is decorated with a pattern of alternating squares: brownish-orange squares divided vertically by a white stripe broken by three thin black lines; and white squares divided diagonally with wave-like black shapes.
Subject Matter
An example of Pueblo pottery produced in the early twentieth century. It draws on traditional techniques and styles but was probably produced for the booming Native southwestern ceramic market.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
You’re always talking to the pot when you are making it—telling it your feelings—and when you finish a pot you blow life into it and it is given life. —Wanda Aragon, contemporary Acoma potter
Acoma Pueblo is one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in North America. Here pottery has always been a feature of daily life and potters hold a respected position in society; their wares—both everyday and ritual—are considered sacred.
This open-mouthed vessel is an excellent example of early twentieth-century Acoma pottery. It is made using locally mined ground Acoma clay tempered with powdered pottery shards. This results in very strong clay that allows for thin-walled vessels. The pots are formed without a wheel using the coil method. After they are scraped, smoothed, and sanded, fine kaolin clay is used to produce a brilliant white slip (liquid clay) that provides a base for the polychrome designs characteristic of Acoma pottery.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
A bulbous vessel with a narrow base and wide mouth that is flanged. The vessel is made up of small, glued pieces of wood that are then turned, creating an intricate pattern in the wood's fine, finished surface. The predominate decorations are bands of diamonds and triangles that run around the widest point of the vessel and beneath the flanged mouth.
Large wood vessel with rings of Native American-inspired design patterns
Subject Matter
This vessel was made first by gluing together small pieces of different woods and then turning the entire piece, leaving the pattern created by the pieces of wood in the finished surface. Allen was influenced by the Native American pottery of the Southwest and tried to reproduce its forms and decorative motifs in wood.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
After nearly thirty years as a carpenter, Ray Allen retired to Yuma, Arizona; there the southwestern traditions of pottery moved Allen, a self-taught woodturner, and stirred his imagination. “My inspiration,” he wrote, “came from prehistoric and present day Southwest pottery,” and his goal became to capture its elegant forms and intricate designs in wood. To do this he used the technique of segmented woodturning, in which a mosaic of different types of wood pieces are formed into rings and glued together to make a whole with a stunning chromatic range. Starting from the bottom, Allen added rings, one at a time, and each was turned and sanded to the proper diameter. Once formed, the vessel was shaped on a large lathe, creating an elegant silhouette with undulating curves and multiple registers of pattern. Lastly, the interior was turned to the desired wall thickness for the size of the finished piece—a tribute to the “everlasting beauty,” in the artist’s words, of the pottery that inspired it and a virtuoso display of the woodturner’s art.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
