Maria Martinez

Maria Martinez with her pottery

• I've always admired the various Native American tribes and been intrigued with their tremendous spirituality and unique philosophy regarding life; and although generally aware of the so-called Pre-Columbian art, I wasn't really acquainted with any individual artist until now.

• Maria Martinez (born in San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico, c. 1884 – died in 1980) was born into a community where pottery was a way of life, where the women of the village made pots using the simple coil method.

• They educated her in working with clay, while more mundane education was given at St. Catherine's Indian School in New Mexico. There she also met her future husband, Julian Martinez, whom she married in 1904 and formed a partnership to make pottery.

• The Blackware pottery which Maria became famous for, was a traditional Indian pottery style, but one of which very few examples existed from earlier times. When her husband was working at an archaeological dig under Dr Edgar Lee Hewett (1907-1910), he discovered a broken piece of Indian pottery, presented it to Maria and asked if she could reconstruct it in the traditional Blackware. This led to the refinement and development of this traditional technique by Maria and her family, and also their famed black on black decoration style.

• Sadly, Maria's husband had a severe alcohol problem, which ultimately led to his death in 1943. However, this unfortunate event didn't stop the pottery production, since her four sons, their wives, and eventually their grandchildren, all worked in pottery.

• It wasn't just her family that benefited from the success of the Martinez pottery either; Maria was wealthy by the standards of the Pueblo, and she shared this wealth and fame unselfishly with the entire community.

• The proof of her recognition outside her community was the invitation to the White House in Washington D.C., where Eleonor Roosevelt praised her and made her realise their awareness regarding her great contribution to the art world; her great importance in the revival of the fine pottery traditions of the Pueblo people, for which she received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Colorado and the American Ceramics society. She also toured America extensively, demonstrating Pueblo pottery techniques and decoration at universities, schools, and many World's Fairs.

• The Blackware style used by Martinez required a complex technique and a great effort to get right. On the finished product, the painted design appears in a matte grey-to-black against the shiny black of the polished surface, and it may be either a negative or positive one, in usually geometric style - polished black bear claw shapes contrast with curving lines and repeated patterns of small dots, cactus leaf shapes are framed in circles, while mountain peaks rise next to them from the equator of the pot. Maria truly loved keeping this artistic tradition of her people alive and her legacy to her family was the precious gift of making the pottery, which she considered priceless.

Maria and Julian Martinez, Blackware Jar, (c.1920)

• And this is the legacy Maria Antonia Montoya Martinez leaves us with: success in a society where native people (and especially their women) were seen as fit only to labour for their 'superiors'; keeping an ancient tradition alive; producing beautiful works of art; and improving the lives of those around her, rather than keeping her wealth simply to make her own life comfortable.