 And welcome to your daily Barnes takeout, your daily serving of art. I'm Carl Walsh. I'm a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Research, Interpretation, and Education here at the Barnes, and today I wanted to revisit the American Southwest through this case of Pueblo and Navajo objects, which is in the lower lobby at the Barnes. And some of you may have seen some of the previous takeouts I did on Native American art in the collection, and know that Barnes became interested in a lot of these objects through his visits to the Southwest in the early 1930s. And today I wanted to have a look at one object in particular, which is this large storage jar, which is on the top shelf of this case. So this is quite a large pot. It would be actually quite difficult in cumbersome to handle by just one person. It's got this big round body and which a large base which tapers up to a much smaller neck and mouth, which is good for storage because it helps to keep out pests from your grain and things that you're storing in there. And because of its size, it would have had actually quite a complex making process. And these types of pots are traditionally made from local clay, which is then mixed with a temper and water. And these are made with a technique that's called coiling, where basically you roll a coil of clay and you stack them on top of each other. And then when you've got kind of a basic shape to it, you then use the hands and tools to help thin and smooth out the walls of the vessel. And this means that you can create really nice, smooth, but also thin walls. And these vessels traditionally are quite thin, but they're still sturdy as well so they can still act for storage quite nicely. And when you've shaped the walls of the vessel and you have its form all sorted, what then what was traditionally done is that you get a polished stone maybe from a creek bed or a river bed, and you rub it against the surface. And this creates a really nice, smooth and shiny surface that you can then add a slip to. And a slip is basically a mixture of water, clay, and sometimes colored pigments. And these are put, this is basically put on by hand onto the vessel. And when it dries, it creates the main field of color on the body of the pot. So in this case of the pot that we're looking at, it has a nice cream kind of tan color and slip that's been used on it. So once the slip is applied, you then let it dry and then you can paint on it. And often the Pueblo painters used a brush that was made out of a stock of a yucca plant. And you can chew the ends of these stocks and it creates a kind of very soft fibrous brush, which allows you a great deal of control when you're painting. So these are what these are traditionally painted with. And the colors that you see on this vase are red, orange, black, and we'll have a little bit more discussion of the painting in a minute and I'll come back to that. So once you've decorated and you've painted it, you then want to fire it. And Pueblo potters traditionally fired their vessels by gathering them all up together in one spot and then covering them in a kind of makeshift dome made out of pieces of scrap metal. And then covering that with a layer of dung and sometimes wood, which is then lit and you then allow all of that material to burn and it fires the pots inside this metal dome. And then when you're all done and the fire has kind of gone out, you remove all the debris in the metal and you should have some nice fire pots in the middle. But you then have to inspect the pots as well because if any of the dung has kind of touched the surface of any of the vessels, it will leave this black discoloration and if there's too much discoloration, potters would usually remove them because it was kind of unsightly and they would be destroyed. So it's kind of a little bit of a risky technique. It allows you to fire lots of things at the same time, but it does mean that if it doesn't come out the way you want, you put all that effort and time into making it and then have to discard it. So a little bit of a tricky firing process. Then the coloration on this particular pot that we're looking at is pretty typical for the Akama Pueblo painting styles. It's got this again nice cream kind of tan slip body and then it contrasts nicely with these reds and oranges and blacks that it's painted with, which are probably made with paint that is based in iron oxides and hematite. And you can see that there are two main types of panels which are on this vessel. So we have a nice image here of a very highly stylized and abstracted rain bird. So we have a nice kind of swooping curling beak here. We have nice bits of plumage and feathers and kind of abstracted feathers and plumage here. And the rain bird is a very traditional image in Pueblo Sorai painting. It's found across a number of different Pueblo groups and it's a mythological creature that heralds the coming of the rains, which is obviously really important to the people who live in this area. The access to water in New Mexico and Arizona is extremely important for living there. So it's kind of this symbol of life and renewal. And then on the other panel that we have, we have this feathered rosette, which has in the middle of it the image of this stylized bird, which could be a rooster or maybe a road runner. And then it has little floral elements around it as well. So these two motifs are really interesting because they're quite different. One is very highly stylized and abstracted and the other one is more figural, more representational. And they kind of testify to different types of artistic traditions that are coming into play here that are being influenced. And the rain bird motif is very traditionally Pueblo. And this other motif that we have here is still drawing on earlier Pueblo models, but the style and the execution of it is very much influenced by kind of Mexican and Spanish tile arts and folk art, particularly in the rendering of things like the floral elements here. So the different styles that are coming across in this pot actually testify to kind of the intercultural contacts that have been going on in New Mexico between Pueblo, Mexicans, Spanish communities that has been ongoing since kind of the 16th century. So it's an interesting piece of kind of hybridized art that testifies to these different cultural traditions. And the style of the painting on this particular pot is also interesting because it's very characteristic of a particular Acoma master potter whose name was Mary Histia. And she worked in New Mexico in the 1930s, so just around the time that Barnes was visiting and acquiring these objects. And she became particularly famous in the United States for her work. And actually, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a big fan of her work and a lot of her pots could be found in government buildings in Washington DC and were given as diplomatic gifts to foreign embassies and foreign dignitaries as well. So her work is particularly famous. And the style that we have on this pot is very similar to other pots that she made that were signed by her so that we know that it's her work. And this is somewhat unusual in that Pueblo painters never traditionally signed their work. It wasn't an artistic convention that was really used amongst the Pueblo peoples. It wasn't really until Western art dealers became more interested in Pueblo art that they began to really kind of want to have pieces of work that were commissioned by particular artists and potters that they liked. And so the practice of signing their work only came into later on in a lot of these potters' careers when they were making a living off selling to Western art dealers. So our example here is not actually signed by her, which again is not uncommon, but the style is so similar that we're pretty certain that it was made by her. And a lot of the Pueblo ceramics that we have in this case that this pot is in are not signed. So they're all kind of unknown Pueblo artisans, which are usually women as well. Women are usually potters in Pueblo societies. So I think it's really important for us to recognize that we have a particular artist here that we can attribute this work towards who comes from the Pueblo peoples. And it's really nice to have an example that we can draw on as well that's in the Barnes collection. So next time you're that you're in the museum, please do come and have a look at this pot and think about the things that I've discussed today and in appreciating the artistry that goes on in this ceramic painting tradition. So I hope you enjoyed this Barnes takeout. If you haven't already, please do subscribe to our channel to get your daily serving of art and leave a comment. We really enjoy reading and responding to these as well. So please take care and stay safe. I'm Tom Collins, new Bauer family executive director of the Barnes Foundation. I hope you enjoyed Barnes takeout. Subscribe and make sure your post notifications are on to get daily servings of art. Thanks for watching and for your support of the Barnes Foundation.