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A rare Santa Ana Pueblo polychrome pottery olla

or water jar by Eudora Montoya, c.1970's

Ex: John and Carol Krena, Four Winds Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA

EUDORA MONTOYA (1905-1996) was for years the last remaining pottery maker at the tiny, but mighty Santa Ana Indian Pueblo in central New Mexico; a Pueblo with a centuries-old glorious history of fine pottery-making. Historic Santa Ana pottery is universally regarded with reverence and awe as being some of the finest and most beautiful pottery in the entire Pueblo world. By the 1920’s, pottery-making at Santa Ana had nearly died out. A series of revivals of this tradition were attempted in subsequent years. The first, during the 1940’s included Eudora Montoya who by then was already one of the last Santa Ana potters remaining.

By the 1960’s she was the very last one left. The second "revival" began in 1972 with the support and encouragement

of the Pueblo tribal authority when Eudora Montoya herself began teaching a small class of Santa Ana women to make pottery, but this “revival” didn’t take hold for very long and Montoya remained essentially the last of a once noble breed. Today, as far as we know, there is little or no traditional Santa Ana Pueblo pottery being made. We have heard there is perhaps one potter, named Rachel Medina, still working at Santa Ana, but we have never seen any of her pieces.

"Eudora Montoya is a small, self-effacing woman, but as a bearer of Pueblo Indian

culture her contribution has been larger than life. Through her efforts and the knowledge

she safeguarded, the centuries-old tradition of Santa Ana-style pottery, once in danger

of extinction, remains vitally alive.”

-Indian Market Magazine, 1988

Eudora Montoya’s Santa Ana pottery pieces are completely traditional in the materials and methods used; tan-colored clay tempered with fine river sand from the nearby Rio Grande river, bright, chalky-textured whitish slip and red and black paint, but her painted designs are somewhat more freeform, modern and individual than traditional historic Santa Ana painted pottery designs as shown above although they retain traditional design influences.

This unique and beautiful pottery jar is an excellent example with a beautifully painted central panel of stylized feather, sun and fleur de lis designs topped off with an elegant upper panel of repeating arc and terrace or Kiva step designs. All in all, it's a lovely and harmonious design presentation, There are some small un-bordered red-colored geometric design elements here and there on the jar floating inside the stylized sun designs, an intentional reminder

by Montoya of one of the defining characteristics of the historic Santa Ana Pueblo pottery tradition. All the design elements are floating atop the jar’s stark white slip giving the overall composition a beautiful lightness and airiness.

The jar measures 9” in height and about 11” in diameter. The jar  is in completely excellent original condition with one or two very minor and insignificant abrasions and nicks here and there. A thorough examination under Ultraviolet light reveals no evidence of restoration or overpainting. The jar is unsigned but was purchased directly from Eudora Montoya in her booth on the Santa Fe Plaza at Santa Fe’s annual August Indian Market sometime in the late 1970’s

as witnessed by the hand-written attribution below by one of our oldest and most knowledgable professional colleagues, John Krena, the owner of the excellent Four Winds Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA.

This lovely jar is a rare and eloquent survivor of an ancient and magnificent Pueblo pottery tradition

now sadly almost completely lost to the relentless sands of time except for the inspired mind and talented

hands of Eudora Montoya.

SOLD