Maria Martinez

Maria Martinez (born 1887?, San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico, U.S.—died July 20, 1980, San Ildefonso Pueblo) was an American artist who, with her husband, Julian Martinez, pioneered a pottery style comprising a black-on-black design with matte and glossy finishes. Together they helped revitalize Pueblo pottery and transformed typically utilitarian objects into works of art that gained international attention.

Maria Montoya was born in San Ildefonso Pueblo, near Santa Fe, New Mexico. She learned pottery making by observing other potters, namely her aunt, Nicholasa Peña Montoya. Pueblo pottery was a communal activity with potters helping one another with each step, from gathering and mixing the clay to firing the vessel. One potter, usually a woman, often fashioned the pot by using the ancient method of hand coiling the clay. She built up the shape and then scraped and smoothed the form with a gourd tool. When the clay mostly dried, she applied a thin layer of slip (a liquid mixture of clay and water) and polished the surface with a stone. Another artist could then apply designs, often using paint brushes made from the yucca plant and paint made from either pulverized iron ore or guaco, a reduction of wild plants. When Maria Montoya was young, she usually formed and polished her pots while her sister Maximiliana (Anna) Martinez and her sister’s husband, Crescencio, decorated them.

Pueblo pottery had been used for centuries for food storage, cooking, washing, and ceremonies. By the time Maria Montoya was learning to make pottery, however, the art was in decline. The completion of the rail line near the San Ildefonso Pueblo in the 1880s brought inexpensive tin pails and enamelware, which quickly replaced handmade vessels. The railroad also brought tourists, for whom many potters made inexpensive souvenirs in shapes alien to their culture, including candlesticks, pitchers, and vases.

Maria Montoya married Julian Martinez in 1904 and took his name. Three years later he was hired by the School of American Archaeology (later the School for Advanced Research), Santa Fe, to work on excavations at the nearby prehistoric Ancestral Pueblo sites on the Pajarito Plateau (later the Bandelier National Monument). Julian Martinez, who was a self-taught painter, recorded some of the designs he observed on the pottery from digs, and Edgar Lee Hewett, the director of the school, often supported him by supplying paper and paint. Hewett also encouraged Maria Martinez to recreate the shapes of some of the ancient pots found at the sites. Husband and wife soon began working together, she forming and polishing the vessels and he painting the decoration.

The earliest pottery that Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez made was probably of the polychrome style, usually black and red on white, which was popular in San Ildefonso at the time. Julian Martinez often adapted historical sources for his designs, decorating vessels with geometric patterns, feathers from the Mimbres people, and the Pueblo avanyu (“water or plumed serpent”). Hewett, who in 1909 established the Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, continued to support the husband-and-wife team, often purchasing their wares for the museum and for his personal collection. His encouragement prompted other potters at San Ildefonso and nearby pueblos to work on improving their own pottery, thus beginning a gradual revival.

In 1911 Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez and other potters from San Ildefonso began to demonstrate their craft at the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe and sold their pots directly to the public. The following year Maria Martinez renewed a polished black style of pottery, which became immediately popular with buyers. The vessels’ high lustre was achieved not only through her superior polishing skills but also by firing at lower temperatures. The process resulted in a pot that was not as hard as those fired at higher temperatures and not as watertight, so it could not be used for cooking or storing liquids. The public, however, prized the pieces for their beauty and purchased the ceramics not as utilitarian objects but as art.

Sometime between 1918 and 1920 Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez invented an entirely new type of Pueblo pottery: black-on-black ware. Their earliest pieces, however, were not immediately popular. They featured a glossy design on a matte finish, which did not allow much room for Maria Martinez’s famous high polish. After some experimentation, the couple sometimes flipped the motif or decreased the areas of matte finish, to provide more space for the glossy finish. After perfecting the process, the pair taught the method to others, and by 1925 most San Ildefonso potters were making black-on-black ware. Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez used a similar process to create redware, which was also very popular, but it was the black-on-black vessels that earned the husband and wife international fame. The geometric designs and sleek finishes brought to mind the Art Deco style that was fashionable at the time, and their pieces were acquired by collectors and museums throughout the world.

Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez continued to make pottery together until his death in 1943. She then worked with a number of different family members on her pottery, including Santana Martinez, the wife of her eldest son, Adam; her third son, Popovi Da; and briefly Popovi Da’s son, Tony Da. Many of these family members also made their own pottery, reinterpreting Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez’s work or inventing their own styles. Popovi Da, for example, created new finishes, including sienna, black and sienna, and gunmetal. Maria Martinez largely retired from pottery making in the early 1970s, but her descendents continued making pottery and were still practicing well into the 21st century.