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Artist Maria Martinez San Ildefonso Pueblo, 1887–1980
Artist Julian Martinez San Ildefonso Pueblo, 1885–1943
Datecirca 1942–1943
MediumPottery: black on black ware
DimensionsH. 6 1/4 in. (15.9 cm)
ClassificationsCeramics
Credit LineGift of Dr. and Mrs. John R. Lambert
Object numberG.78.21.1
On View
On view
Label Text"Tewa potter Maria Martinez is renowned for innovations in her ancestral blackware tradition. Partly inspired by the discovery of ancient Pueblo black-on-black shards excavated in New Mexico’s Pajarito Plateau region, Martinez and her husband, Julian, redeveloped the technique. Maria shaped and polished vessels, Julian painted designs, and together they perfected the complex firing process.

When first revived, their now-iconic black-on-black technique diverged from the polychrome pottery widely produced by Pueblo potters. Though jars such as this are traditionally utilitarian and not attributed to a single maker, this object is signed “Marie and Julian,” demonstrating the wide, non-Native market for their work."
[L. Applebaum, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2022]Published ReferencesNancy Strickland Fields, Rose Simpson and Stephen Fadden, To Take Shape and Meaning: Form and Design in Contemporary American Indian Art (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2024), 10, 175, illus. (color) 163.

North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection," (Raleigh, NC; North Carolina Museum of Art, 2024), illus. (color) 22.Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Becoming the NCMA: 10 Decades of Collecting, 1924-2022," June 11-August 21, 2022.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–January 30, 2024.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "To Take Shape and Meaning: Form and Design in Contemporary American Indian Art." March 2-July 28, 2024.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," July 31, 2024-present. Object Rights Statement

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