San Ildefonso Black-on-black Jar signed Popovi 467 [SOLD]

Popovi Da (1922-1971) Red Fox was an important Pueblo native in more ways than is generally known.  He started his education at the San Ildefonso Pueblo day school, then continued at the Santa Fe Indian School and additional schools after that.  He served in the U. S. Army during World War II and spent his time assigned to Los Alamos where his artistic talent was put to use manufacturing items for use in the atomic bomb being developed under the Manhattan Project.

After the war, he returned to the pueblo where he and his wife, Anita, opened the Popovi Da Studio of Indian Arts.  Popovi primarily intended to sell his mom’s pottery but began purchasing from other pueblo artists as well.  Following the death of his dad, Popovi assisted his mother by decorating her pottery and all the other tasks associated with pottery production such as digging and working the clay and firing the pottery.  Popovi promoted the works of his mother and the other artists through his studio and through presentations and speeches, a task that the older generation was uncomfortable with in dealing with the non-Indian public.

Popovi, in addition to helping his mom with her pottery, made pottery on his own.  His first solo pottery was in 1962.  He was first to imbed turquoise into pottery, the first to experiment with black and sienna wares, and the first to achieve gunmetal firing of pottery.  He was a silversmith and worked in gold.  He was a governor of the pueblo and an important personage of the pueblo government.  He was instrumental in stopping the spread of HUD wood-frame buildings at the pueblo and succeeded in getting the government to build adobe buildings, the only pueblo to achieve this.  His death in 1971 was a great loss to the pueblo and to the art community.

This magnificent and simple Black-on-black jar by Popovi is signed Popovi and dated 467 (April 1967).  It is a highly burnished finish and a deep black coloration from an expert firing.  It is a rare day to see pottery by Popovi Da available for purchase.

Condition: absolutely excellent original condition

Provenance: from a gentleman in Arizona

Reference and Recommended Reading: The Legacy of Maria Poveka Martinez by Richard L. Spivey, 2003