Pot

Famed potter Maria Martinez worked with her husband, Julian, to revive the traditional Pueblo style of blackware pottery in the early 1920s. This ancient method produced contrasting matte and glossy black surfaces, marking a departure from the multicolored pottery that had previously defined Pueblo ceramics. The couple worked collaboratively from their home at San Ildefonso Pueblo near Santa Fe, New Mexico: Maria built, shaped, and polished the vessels, while Julian painted their surfaces. Black-on-black pottery quickly gained popularity and remains a defining ceramic tradition of the region today.