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Burnished: Pueblo Pottery at NMWA

Since time immemorial, Pueblo peoples of the North American Southwest have been creating clay vessels for gathering, storage, and ceremonial purposes. Traditionally associated with women makers, Pueblo pottery-making is a communal activity. Artists often assist one another in gathering locally sourced clay and pigments, mixing and tempering the clay, and pit-firing vessels. They teach these skills to younger generations of potters, who build on family traditions while preserving their legacies.

Every bowl, olla, and seed jar in Pueblo society is instilled with special meaning and significance through cultural practices and collective memory. Hand-coiled clay, painted and carved motifs, and stone-burnished finishes all point to enduring and living traditions that reflect each Pueblo community. However, when Indigenous makers began to produce pottery expressly for a burgeoning twentieth-century market of traders, art dealers, and collectors, they created decorative works with inventive new designs that were not made for use within their own communities. Many contemporary works relate to ancestral traditions, yet artists innovate in both content and aesthetics to appeal to buyers and patrons.

Burnished brings together highlights from NMWA’s collection of pottery by Pueblo artists, many of which were donated by NMWA’s founders, Wilhelmina Cole Holladay and Wallace F. Holladay. Key loans from the private collection of their son Hap Holladay, as well as recent acquisitions in the museum’s collection, further enrich the narrative, reflecting diverse traditions across Pueblo nations. These vessels illuminate a complex art form that has been venerated, sustained, and renewed for generations.

Burnished: Pueblo Pottery at NMWA is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and generously supported by the members of NMWA.

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Jar, ca. 1990s

Shana Garcia-Rustin (b. 1969, Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico)

Fired clay with pigment; Collection of Hap Holladay

Seed pot, ca. 1980

Iris Youvella Nampeyo (b. 1944, Hopi Pueblo, Arizona; d. 2018, Hopi Pueblo, Arizona)

Fired clay; Collection of Hap Holladay

While Nampeyo began working in the painted style made famous by her mother, Fannie Polacca Nampeyo (1900–1987), and grandmother, Nampeyo of Hano (ca. 1860–1942), she shifted to making unslipped tan pottery with no painted decorations. Her signature mark, the delicately carved ear-of-corn appliqué, denotes her affiliation as a Hopi-Tewa member of the Corn Clan. For Hopi peoples, the westernmost group of Pueblo nations, corn represents a fundamental source of life and identity, providing sustenance and sacred connection to the earth.

Melon bowl, 1997

Nancy Youngblood (Yellow Aspen) (b. 1955, Fort Lewis, Washington)

Blackware; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of the artist

Known for her elegant, ribbed “melon” vessels, Youngblood has upheld and built on Santa Clara Pueblo (Kha’P’o) traditions that she learned from her grandmother, Margaret Tafoya. She works in a variety of styles, including “S swirl” patterns and the classic straight ribs of this bowl. Here, each of the thirty-two ribs is hand-carved with precision and symmetry, starting out thin at the rim, widening in the middle, and narrowing at the base. Every element is meticulously polished with a stone to achieve a glassy finish.

Jar, ca. 2000s

Rebecca Lucario (b. 1951, Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico)

Earthenware; Collection of Hap Holladay

A member of the Yellow Corn Clan, Lucario learned ancient pottery techniques from her grandmother, Dolores Sanchez (ca. 1888–1991). She says, “When I was young, growing up, my grandmother made me do the whole process by myself. I had to go dig my clay, go grab my sherds, pick my paints, and go manure-picking and everything.” Lucario’s work displays meticulously painted designs and fine lines, which she estimates by sight. Using both commercial and yucca leaf brushes, she starts painting at the jar’s rim and works her way down to its base.