About Maria Montoya Poveka Martinez

Name variants

Mara Martnez, Marie Montoya Martnez
  • Biography

    Of Tewa heritage of the San Ildefonso Pueblo in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico, Maria Martinez became world renowned for her black on black pottery. "This process involved burying the unfinished pot in a fire in the ground, covered tightly with sheep or cow dung for fuel. The amount of air reaching the pottery determined whether the clay remained red or instead turned completely black." (Gibson/Michnovicz, 91)

    Her pottery was first exhibited beyond her pueblo at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, and many decades later at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, and the Heard Museum in Phoenix.

    She learned to make pots as a child from her aunt, Tia Nicolas...

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