Large Tesuque Polychrome Olla [SOLD]

In this olla, we see an object combined with the artist’s subjective response to it—a union of material and technique both symbolic and intelligible. This potter has applied to the painting of the pottery the discipline of line and technique developed through many centuries of decorating every imaginable object of daily or sacred use with designs innately suited to the objects decorated and charged with traditional cultural concepts.

Simplicity, balance, rhythm, abstraction, an unequalled range of design elements, and virility, characterize the work combined in this vessel. This round globular jar is an exemplary expression of Tesuque Polychrome at its best. It is unusually large for a Tesuque jar and features the globular shape suggesting an 1875-1880 date.

Clay, temper, slip and technique give this vessel those characteristic values, which say it could not have been made anywhere but at Tesuque. The paste is tan in color and fibrous in texture with crystalline sand grains.

The design consists of free flowing floral elements that are more creative than often seen at Tesuque, where repetitions of the same elements are most often expected. The primary design is one very long element—covering almost half the circumference of the vessel—and contains a bird enclosed in a vine-line structure suggesting a bird in a cage. The other two elements—covering the remaining half of the body of the vessel—are meandering vine-like structures sporting seedpods. Other designs include ovoid elements at the neck, presented in negative fashion, under which is a wide band of crisscross lines.

A red rim and red band below the decoration are traditional to Tesuque. The bottom is concave and the tan, unslipped clay is stone polished in traditional fashion.

Note: following a line-crack repair, the jar is in excellent condition. Also, this jar was in our Tesuque: Place of the Red Willow show of 2002 and is listed in the catalog on page 4.