O From ancient times, clay figures have been present in the
Pueblo pottery tradition. Figurines, especially human female figures, were an integral element in the Anasazi culture
by 400 AD. There is little evidence for the continuity of figurative work between 1500 and 1875, when first missionaries
and then scholars denounced or derided the making of figurative clay pieces However, beyond that time figurative
sculpture has flourished--especially at Cochiti Pueblo just south of Santa Fe--in the forms of animals, birds and
caricatures of outsiders and, more recently, of images of mothers and grandfathers telling stories and singing
to children. Following the coming of the railroad to New Mexico in the late 1800s, Native American artists delighted
in mimicking their new visitors, and their caricatures included supplicating padres, businessmen, cowboys and dancing
bears.O The story of Cochiti Pueblo artist Helen Cordero
is inextricably linked to the art of figurative clay sculpture...for it is she who gave new shape to an ancient
form.
O " I kept seeing my grandfather ( Santiago Quintana )"
she said. "That one, he was a really good storyteller, and there were always lots of us grandchildren around
him." Santiago Quintana was also a leading member of one of the clown societies and a mucho sabio. He was
a valued friend and collaborator to several generations of anthropologists and observers of Pueblo life. O Continued below... |
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He wanted his traditions preserved and maintained, and he went to great lengths to insure
that "they got it right." When Helen remembered her grandfather's voice and shaped that first image of
him telling stories to five grandchildren, she made two significant modifications in the Singing Mother tradition:
O 1. She made the primary figure male, rather than female.
O 2. She placed and unrealistic number of children on
him.
Subsequent Cordero storytellers have had as many as 30"
O That was 1964 and the grandfather figure with five
children was the first storyteller. As a portrait of Helen Cordero's grandfather, it is a self-portrait as well,
since she is one of the children. The first storyteller is the Alexander Girard Collection in the Museum of International
Folk Art in Santa Fe. Today, as many as three hundred potters in thirteen pueblos have created storytellers...and
the storytellers are not only men and women, but also mudheads, koshares, bears, owls and other animals... often
with children numbered more than one hundred. |
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