Revival Rising
ONE OF THE FIRST EXHIBITIONS OF ITS KIND, KING GALLERIES PRESENTS A COMPREHENSIVE COLLECTION OF OHKAY OWINGEH REVIVAL POTTERY.
One of the first exhibitions of its kind, King Galleries presents a comprehensive collection of Ohkay Owingeh revival pottery.
Revival means “bringing back, or coming back into use” according to Mr. Webster. But can you revive a revival? Gallery owner Charles King certainly believes it’s possible, with his upcoming show this summer at King Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, titled Revival Rising: Ohkay Owingeh Pottery 1930s-60s.
While pottery from this Pueblo was known for being sturdy utilitarian ware, in the late 19th century it was primarily red or black in color, and usually not decorated. King says it had pretty much died out by 1900. The revival the Pueblo’s pottery first experienced in the 1930s wasn’t a “stop the presses” kind of movement. “It never really had a lot of attention from people in the same way that San Ildefonso or Santa Clara potteries have had…so it kind of got lost.”
What happened was a certain style of pottery from the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, or San Juan as it was called then, was essentially found again, thanks to a group of women now called the “Original 8,” led by Regina Cata. She was born in Colorado in 1884, with roots reaching back to Spain. She married Eulogu Cata, and moved to the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. Here she formed an art club with seven other women: Crucita Cruz, Luteria Atencio, Reycita Trujillo, Tomasita Montoya, Crucita Talachy (Atencio), Gregocita Cruz and Flora Cata.
What these eight women did was to take on the mission of bringing their Pueblo’s own pottery making back. However, they made the conscious decision to use as their inspiration the pottery styles which flourished before the arrival of the Spanish.
“They went to some of the museums and went to some of the prehistoric sites to actually see the pieces and get an idea of a type of pottery in which there was
nothing to go with,” explains King. “There was the freedom to choose what they wanted to do, and here you have them choosing this ancient style of pottery as the foundation for what they were going to make.”
“A lot of the pottery that was revived comes from my little village,” says Clarence Cruz, Ohkay Owingeh potter and University of New Mexico assistant professor of studio arts. He points out how the Original 8 got their inspiration, explaining, “It’s not too far from the area where they went and visited a lot of the ancestral sites, to rediscover, bring back and revive some of the styles that were brought to the forefront, which is the tan and red, the Potsuwi’i Incised, the carved pieces and the polychrome.”
“Pieces from 1900 were basically red on top and tan on the bottom,” says King. “They decided to take that idea, except to do red on top, red on the bottom and tan in the center, so kind of harkening back to earlier visual cues of what was San Juan, but again updating it into something a little bit more modern.”
As the Original 8 dug deeper into the artistic past, they started doing the same with the pottery. It’s the texture of the outside surface that helps set their works apart with designs or patterns incised, carved, following what was done approximately 400 years earlier.
“The Potsuwi’i pottery that they used was actually incised, lightly carved into it, to create a design pattern, and that’s the design concept they utilized on the earliest pieces. Later, they started doing deeper carving,” says King.
Some researchers say these eight women of the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo created more than pottery in their art club, and their work with embroidery also transitioned over to the incising on their pots. Regina Cata, the woman who started this whole revival movement in 1930, had 10 children. Her youngest child, Libby Marcus, now 94, says it’s true about the embroidery work being one of those inspirations.
King says it can be seen in the intricacies of all of their work. “If you think of things that are embroidered…you kind of get a lot of it, those squared designs, and how you put imagery together to fit the embroidered patterns,” he says. “You can see how that starts to show itself in pottery, the way it’s kind of put together, in terms of the patterns on it.”
This can be seen in a photo with an Eagle Dancer doll made by Cata, next to a carved polychrome bowl made by Luteria Atencio from the late 1930s. “Here’s the doll, with what she’s doing with the embroidering,” says King. “Then you look at the piece of pottery, and a lot of that kind of design almost flows over inside the designs on the piece of pottery.”
This is not the only doll made by Regina Cata, as daughter Marcus says Cata made a total of 1,441 dolls over approximately 20 years, making them to help pay for her children’s education. Marcus explains, through her niece Cata Fulkerson, that’s not all these dolls did. “Each doll represented either everyday life and costume, or dance costumes for many of the traditional dances done at Ohkay Owingeh,” says Marcus. “They were all handmade, including the jewelry. Each doll being dressed authentically in every detail.”
King picks up the story here. “So [Cata] was sort of
the impetus of it, and the other group really…i think as a group they came together and started this pretty great idea of reviving it,” he explains.
“Not only did she help to revive the pottery, she also made sure the designs in manta’s (women’s dresses) and the scarves they wear for dances were also revived,” says Marcus.
This Ohkay Owingeh “pottery spring” as it were, thrived for about 30 years. By the end of the 1960s, however, the Original 8 were passing away, as Cata did in 1971. King says once the women stopped being able to make pottery, it also coincided with a gradual disinterest in it. “Once these ladies passed away, very few of them had children or grandchildren that continued to make pottery,” he says. “It’s really sort of this exciting impetus of it, the continuation of it, but by the ’70s it started to die out again, and today there’s just a few that remain.” This is why he determined his show would cover that period, from the 1930s through 1969.
King grew up in the gallery world, as his parents owned one and gave him so many opportunities to meet artists. It was the potters who most impressed him, and the skills they possessed just drew him in. “It’s something that’s always fascinated me since I was a little kid,” King recalls. “It’s such an art form that is both tactile and visual. There’s amazing history in Native pottery, and sort of an incredible story that’s told in clay. And I think that was part of the Ohkay Owingeh pieces which felt like nobody was telling that story, or nobody was telling it right.”
Clarence Cruz is intensely aware of this, with his own family ties going back to the Original 8 with his godmother, Felicita Garcia being the daughter of Tomasita Montoya, and his nephew married to a granddaughter of Cata. He says not only is it hard to find information on those from the revival period, but it’s even hard to find pieces from that time, made by their “aunties and grandmas.”
“Some of the pots they created were with imagery in the back, like designs,” says Cruz. “If they had a Native name, they would actually draw a little image, like flower or rain, something like that. Or they would just put a cross with four dots. That was one of my auntie’s signatures as well.”
“Part of the problem is that with those older pieces, finding them by these artists, if it didn’t have a big name on it, people didn’t pay attention to it,” says King. “And people didn’t keep them or take care of them.”
But King has paid attention and has taken care, and this show is the result of his efforts in finding creations by these highly talented and unsung artists. “I put together 50 or more pieces of it, finding most of those Original 8 plus some of the other pieces to really make a statement,” he says. “Once I started…i was just basically putting pieces back and holding on to them…so it’s kind of been building itself up and refining itself over the course of a little over 10 years of doing it.”
Cruz, who has been a potter and an assistant professor for nearly 29 years, is one of those who draws inspiration from the pieces made by those who came before. “I come across them in the collections,” he says. “I just take a deep breath, in appreciation and the hopes that their spirit will mix with my spirit, to give me the strength to continue and do what I do, along with others who also are trying to hold on to the craft of pottery making.”
For award-winning potter Linda (Oyenque) Sanchez, granddaughter of Margaret Tafoya, this Santa Clara potter has family ties to Ohkay Owingeh, and has a deep admiration for what the Original 8 accomplished. “To me, San Juan pottery has a sense of strength that is passed on through the hands of the potter,” she says. “When I look at these older pieces, I can envision the potter, and visualize that strength but also a gentleness and respect in handling Mother Clay that these women had when making their pots.”
She goes on to say that each pot has its own distinct shape or form along with its own individual creativity from the potter. She says, “For some, a pot becomes a carrier of prayers that have been said, and the thankfulness of what’s to come.”
With pottery, as with other art forms, the finished
piece is an extension of the artist, reflecting the passion they feel for their art. “We create from the heart with the beliefs of who we are, and how we speak, and how we feel, and what our community is like within tradition and culture,” says Cruz. “It’s also defining who you are as an individual from a particular community within a traditional or Native perspective.”
And that’s what King feels about his upcoming Revival Rising show, as they gain new insight into what these artists created.
“I hope they come away with a new appreciation for Ohkay Owingeh pottery…maybe they didn’t pay enough attention to it, or know enough about it, but come away understanding it more, understanding the history,” King says. “And, just appreciation of the beauty and the designs that were created.”
While the numbers of actual Ohkay Owingeh potters are small, the goal of Cata with her art club formed nearly 90 years ago still holds true. “The club was very important to her,” says Marcus. “Her desire was for it to continue into the future to keep the traditions and pottery style alive.”
Cruz is, well, hopeful as he works with students at UNM. Cruz says, “It is something that I look at today, and into the future, in the hopes that bringing new generations of potters from Ohkay Owingeh, and not just there but a lot of the other villages, too.”
Sanchez incorporates some of the Pueblo’s designs into her work now, and says her granddaughter has already made her first pot, explaining, “For me, Mother Clay is calling, healing in her own way, connecting friends and family, helping make new ones, and telling me to teach my little ones about carrying on traditions, all in Her own way. We only have to sit and listen.”
The show runs from July 20 through August 3. King is hopeful some artists will be among those who attend. “I always hope that one potter, or someone interested in Native art will find inspiration in it,” he says. “I’d love to think that some potters come down and check it out, and are blown away by what they can see, and things they’ve never seen before or haven’t thought about… and maybe there’ll be a new revival of Ohkay Owingeh pottery. That would be pretty awesome.”