San Ildefonso Pueblo Polished Black Bowl by Popovi Da [SOLD]

Popovi Da 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 National Laboratories where his artistic talent was converted to 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 (Maria Martinez) pottery but began purchasing from other pueblo artists as well.  A decade or so after the death of his dad (Julian Martinez), 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 bowl by Popovi is signed Popovi and dated 364 (March 1964), only two years after his first pottery piece.  It is a highly burnished finish and a deep black coloration from an expert firing.

This bowl, in addition to being signed and dated by Popovi, has the name MOM scratched into the clay on the underside, an indication that Popovi made this for his mom or decided later to give it to her.  This is probably the rarest item of pottery by Popovi.  I doubt there are others of his that were dedicated to Maria.

Condition: this San Ildefonso Pueblo Polished Black Bowl by Popovi Da Martinez is in excellent condition

Provenance: passed down through the family of Maria Martinez to a granddaughter of Popovi Da from whom we acquired it.

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

*U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development