Helen Cordero Male Storyteller Figurine with Four Children [SOLD]

This classic male Storyteller pottery figurine by Helen Cordero (1915-1994) of Cochiti Pueblo reflects her iconic style and historic innovation in Southwestern Native art. The primary figure wears a traditional cross necklace, a patterned shirt with a finished collar band, and a stepped terraced-design mantle across the back, all rendered in black and red slip over cream clay.

Four children are attached across the main figure's upper body — one draped over the right shoulder, one perched on the left shoulder, one cradled on the left leg/lap area, and one holding onto his back. The traditional matte slip, hand-painted fabric details on the children's clothing, and original painted features remain fully intact. The wide-open mouth represents the transmission of oral history — the storyteller is actively singing or speaking to the children attached to him.

Cordero utilized traditional Cochiti natural clay slip, red clay accents, and wild spinach (beeweed) black pigment, and fired her pieces outdoors in the traditional Pueblo manner.

The piece retains its characteristic warmth, expressive posturing, and classic mid-to-late 20th-century Cochiti aesthetic that makes Cordero's original work so sought by collectors and institutions worldwide.

The bottom features her handwritten signature: Helen Cordero | Cochiti, NMex.

Helen Cordero created the very first pottery Storyteller figurine in 1964. Prior to her work, Cochiti potters made "singing mother" or "mono" figures, but Cordero modeled the male storyteller character after her grandfather, Santiago Quintana, whom she remembered telling stories to his grandchildren.

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: this Helen Cordero Male Storyteller Figurine with Four Children is from the collection of the client to whom we sold this in 2001

Recommended Reading: The Pueblo Storyteller - Development of a Figurative Ceramic Tradition by Barbara Babcock

TAGS: storyteller figurine, pottery, Cochiti Pueblo, Antonita "Toni" Suina, Buffy Cordero, Tim Cordero, Evon Trujillo, Helen Cordero