Vintage Pottery Figure of a Woman Holding a Bowl, c. 1950
Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico
clay, pigment
5” high x 2.5” wide x 3” deep
Cochiti and Santo Domingo had long developed their pottery on a parallel course until about 1830, when the Cochiti potters began a 20-year evolution away from the Kewa Polychrome of Santo Domingo to their own distinctive style known as Cochiti Polychrome. The initial differences between Kewa and Cochiti Polychrome are seen mainly in the designs used. Cochiti Polychrome design lines became lighter and finer with motifs often becoming isolated decorations unrelated to one another. Kewa Polychrome designs consisted of heavy, bold lines with multiple geometric patterns. Secular Cochiti Polychrome pottery also often contains sacred symbols such as clouds, rain, lightning, serpents, mammals and humans, all of which were/are strictly forbidden to Santo Domingo potters.
In addition to their traditional pottery, Cochiti potters also produce ceramic animal figurines in the form of owls, turtles, bears, frogs, coyotes and other animals, many of which are quite popular with the tourists. In the 1880s, a delegation of Cochiti men got on the train and went to Washington, DC. They met the President and spoke to Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Then they traveled to New York City. There they went to Madison Square Garden and saw the Ringling Brothers Circus. They also went to the Bronx Zoo and to the Metropolitan Opera. No one could read or write, no one had pen or paper, no one drew anything. So when they returned to Cochiti, some of the stories of what they saw got pretty fantastical. Today, we're seeing pottery figurines built from memories of the attributes of various circus animals and performers that were first seen in the 1880s.
One of the most popular pottery figurines that originated at Cochiti is the storyteller, a design made famous by Helen Cordero. Today, Cochiti potters make an enormous variety of storyteller figures in the forms of animals and humans. Although Cochiti has long been known for producing storytellers and traditional drums they also have talented jewelers and painters.
