Maria Martinez (Native American, San Ildefonso, 1880-1980) Jug, 1934-1943 Clay fired blackware ceramic Gift of Orpha Webster 1975.C.2.33
Maria Martinez’s vessel is an example of the artist’s renowned
technique and represents a cultural recontextualization that
came to define public understandings of Native American
ceramics. Known as black-on-black ware, such vessels required
a painstaking, specific process of creation involving local clay,
pulverization, hand-shaping, polishing and firing. Though the
tradition originated with her maternal ancestry, Martinez
pioneered and popularized the style resulting in a widespread
acknowledgment of Native American ceramics as an art form.
Martinez shaped a new perception of her medium that resisted
utilitarian assumptions and cultural stereotyping. Her jug
stands as both a symbolic gesture and an inherently feminist
effort, representing an artist who defied a structural narrative
that generally excluded both her gender and her heritage.