Early Life:
Since her early childhood and her first exposure to crafting her own pottery with her aunt at the age of 12, Maria Martinez has been adapting and revolutionizing both traditional Pueblo pottery and pottery as a whole artistic category. Born in 1887 in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico, Martinez was an active member of the San Ildefonso Pueblo Heritage and a bright young pottery student under her aunt, Tia Nicolasa. Maria met her husband Julian in the early 1900s and the couple got married in 1904. In 1918, after much research on a discovered shard of ancient black pottery and trial and error with their own pottery, Maria and her husband discovered and perfected the black-on-black pottery technique. The ancestral piece of black pottery was found at what is now Bandelier National Monument, and served as a major inspiration for Maria and Julian. The new artistic innovation discovered by the couple involves a unique paint, polishing, and firing technique which turns red clay into a highly stylized vessel that juxtaposes a polished black with matte black accents.
Black-on-Black Pottery at Michigan:
A perfect example of the Pueblo artist’s newly pioneered style would be the Pot (ca1935) that is located in the basement display cases of the University of Michigan Museum of Art. The vessel is rounded, with a receding top and bottom with a rounded center. The shiny medium of the design bounces off of the display case light, while the matte portions of the design remain rather constant in varying light. This piece features a traditional matte Pueblo feather-like design juxtaposing with a luster backdrop with a matte base to separate the stylized from the simple portion of the pot. The vessel perfectly exemplifies the skilled craftsmanship and aesthetic vision that Martinez had for her revolutionary pottery.
The black-on-black pottery technique is a long and tedious process. Martinez would carefully form the locally gathered clay with her hands. The vessel would be hardened with a special firing technique which utilized horse manure inside and outside of an adobe-styled firing oven to create kiln-temperature fires. The fire is smothered during the firing process which traps the smoke and deposits the black shade into the clay. The resulting colors are variations of black and grayer colors. Maria would form the pottery, her husband would paint it, and Maria would add a layer of slip and polish it with a smooth stone to create the luster details in the vessel.
Maria’s Career and Associates
Many works ranging from 1918 to as late as 1923 are unsigned. However, Maria was convinced to begin signing some of her pottery around 1920 to increase its value. Martinez would simply sign her pots “Marie” because pottery was culturally viewed as a woman’s job in the traditional pueblo heritage until 1925 when Julian began to sign the vessels as well. Marie and Julian continued to develop and establish their newly invented style until Julian’s death in 1943.
Following her husband’s death, Maria worked with another couple named Adam and Santana, as well as with her son Popovi Da, beginning in the 1950s. Adam was the oldest son of Maria and Julian. Santana convinced Maria to change her signature from “Marie “ to “Maria,” as the name was more receptive to an international audience. Martinez continued to develop her personal style and share it with an international audience until her retirement in 1970. The artist passed away in July of 1980 at the age of 93.
Adam and Santana Martinez, n.d.
Maria’s Signatures
Maria Martinez’s Signature as it Evolved over Time, n.d. Adobe Gallery.
Legacy
Martinez’s works were shared at multiple World’s Fairs and international expositions, as her work’s combination of traditional inspiration and modern aesthetics were received positively by a vast domestic and international audience. Martinez is respected as one of the first Native American artists to break the threshold of ethnocentrism which often negatively impacts western interpretation of native art. Despite the international attention that her uniquely pioneered vessels brought her, Maria lived a humble and traditional life in accordance with Pueblo values, and the artist never liked being away from her homeland. Her allegiance to Pueblo artistic tradition combined with her ability to adapt the artwork into a modern, sleek design that was enjoyed by a large international audience truly makes this artist special and revolutionary to the medium.
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Works Cited
Maria: The Potter of San Ildefonso (1987). The University of Oklahoma Press.
Peterson, Susan, and Maria Montoya. Martinez. Maria Martinez: Five Generations of Potters. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978.
“Puebloan: Maria Martinez, Black-on-Black Ceramic Vessel.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, 2018.
Spivey, Richard. “Maria Montoya Poveka Martinez (1887-1980) Pond Lily.” Adobe Gallery Art of the Southwest Indian Alexander E Anthony Jr, Adobe Gallery.
Wood, Matt. “About Maria Martinez.” MariaMartinezPottery.com, Matt Wood’s Antique American Art, 2013.
“Work by world-renowned potter maria martinez showcased at heard museum; 60-plus pieces by famed potter, family shown in new exhibit.” (2003, May 16). The Native Voice Retrieved from ProQuest.
This entry from the May 2003 issue of The Native Voice, a publication geared towards studying aboriginal culture in the Americas was very helpful with my research on Maria Martinez and her life history. I found this article later in my research process on Maria’s biography, and it was extremely useful in filling in some chronological gaps that I had in my previous research regarding who artist collaborated with and when. The article also does a great job describing the black-on-black pottery process, and I wish I had found it before writing my research paper, because some of the descriptors for the facture and technique of the pottery would have helped me greatly in finding my own words to describe the vessel that I examined at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. The entry also emphasizes Martinez’s creativity and innovation in the entire field of pottery, which was an aspect of my biography that I was looking to strengthen going into writing. The article also includes useful information about the artist’s multitude of World’s Fair and international exhibition showings, which helped me realize and write about the great impact that Martinez’s pottery had on such a wide audience. Lastly, the article emphasizes how Maria specialized in forming the pottery while her husband or the other people she worked with after his death painted and even decorated the vessels. This publication would be greatly useful to anyone enquiring about the artist or researching her biography and chronology of her work and achievements.
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