Acoma Pueblo Large Pottery Seed Jar by Dorothy Torivio [SOLD]

This is one of Dorothy Torivio’s larger Acoma Pueblo pottery seed jars, measuring over 5 inches in diameter.  She did not make them much larger. It has a raised center hole from which the spiral design has its beginning in very small scale and expands and grows as it spreads to the maximum diameter, then starts shrinking in scale as it progresses to the base.  It is almost incomprehensible that an artist could maintain such control in the spirals and triangles, but Dorothy was an expert at doing so.

Dorothy Torivio (1946 - 2011) was the most progressive artisan at Acoma Pueblo since as early as the 1980s. She was born at Acoma Pueblo and is renowned for her innovative work in exaggerated seed-pot forms in large and miniature sizes. She painted her hand-coiled and outdoor-fired pots with black and white or polychrome patterns of staggering intricacy, painted fresh, and with computer-like precision.

Torivio extrapolated the innovative forms and decorations that were initiated by the famous Acoma potters of the previous generation, Lucy Lewis and Marie Z. Chino. She learned to make pottery from her mother-in-law, Lolita Concho, who taught her how to paint fine lines. She, herself, devised the method of choosing a design and repeating it over and over in a geometric pattern. Each design element in her repertoire has its root in Mimbres symbols.  Her pottery works are traditional in manufacture but progressive in design. The design is based on repetition of a singular element meandering throughout the vessel, starting small at the rim and underbody and expanding in scale as the pottery vessel expands at its midsection.

This large seed jar is an excellent example of the style and workmanship of Torivio’s repertoire. The expanding scale of the designs from the neck downward was rendered in perfection.  It is signed by the artist, Dorothy Torivio.

Condition: this Acoma Pueblo Large Pottery Seed Jar by Dorothy Torivio is in very good condition

Provenance: from the collection of a client from Florida

Recommended Reading: Art of Clay - Timeless Pottery of the Southwest by Lee M. Cohen

Relative Links: Acoma Pueblo, Lolita Concho; Juanita Keene; Sandra M. Victorino, Dorothy Torivio, Preshistoric Pottery, Mimbres Culture