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Mark Tahbo learned to make pottery from his great-grandmother, Grace Chapella. His pieces reflect the wonderful symmetry and thin walls of an excellent potter. The designs are painted using native clay slips and bee-weed (a plant) for the black. This large jar is one of his pieces from the 1990’s. The shape is inspired by the ancient Sikyatki pottery, where the vessels were very wide and flat. This jar is stone polished and the top is painted with a bird wing and bird head as the design. The placement of the imagery gives the piece a very modern appearance. The jar was traditionally fired which created the blushes on the surface. It is signed on the bottom, “Mark Tahbo” It is in very good condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.
This is an exceptional large jar by Mark Tahbo. It came from a collector who purchased it directly from Mark. It looked very familiar and when I went though some old photos, I realized I had been at Hopi the day it was fired! Mark had been firing pieces for Santa Fe Indian Market in1998 and asked me to come up and photograph some of the firings. At the end of the photos are some photos of this being taken out of the firing! What an amazing coincedence! It’s no surprise that this jar is thin walled and a great shape. The entire surface is fully polished. The jar was made in 1998 and it was one of the first times he had deviated from more classic Sikyati designs of Nampeyo and his great-grandmother Grace Chapella. Here each of the figures around the shoulder has a different katsina mask including the grandmother katsina, hornet, cloud, star, and others. Note how the mask of each one is different and painted with both red, white and mauve clay slips! The band closer to the neck has star, bird, corn, raincloud, butterfly and flower patterns. Again, they are painted with the various clay slips! The complexity in design and the variations in color are certainly a hallmark of this period of his pottery. The jar was traditionally fired and there are great blushes on the surface. Mark fired his pottery outdoors using sheep dung and the smoke created the intense colorations. He was always fascinated with the blushes in the clay and worked hard to give his pottery a rich appearance. This jar is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair. It is signed and dated on the bottom.
Mark Tahbo learned to make pottery from his great grandmother, Grace Chapella. His pieces reflect the wonderful symmetry and thin walls of an excellent potter. The designs are painted using native clay slips and bee-weed (a plant) for the black. This jar from 1996 harkens to his early work and it is unexpectedly thin, which makes it a delight to hold. The jar is a shape which allows for the painted designs to flow up from the shoulder to the neck. It is an interesting pattern, as it one which Mark rarely used on his pottery. It is a pair of opposing butterflies on each side of the jar. Their bodies are made up of traditional Hopi-Tewa designs. and separating them are stylized wing patterns. It is his own variation on the classic “eagle tail” pattern which is often used, but here with the butterflies as a replacement. Of course, the jar was traditionally fired and the blushes, which he loved on his pottery, cover the surface and enhance the design. The jar is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.
Mark Tahbo learned to make pottery from his great grandmother, Grace Chapella. His pieces reflect the wonderful symmetry and thin walls of an excellent potter. The designs are painted using native clay slips and bee-weed (a plant) for the black. This is a classic bowl from 2003. On this piece Mark included a variety of styles of Hopi birds. Each was painted with different clay slips and he wanted to create a sense of motion. They fly around the bowl and in, under and around the lid. This is one of the few pieces where Mark made a lid for his pottery. Note the use of all the various clay colors from mauve to red to burgundy. It is an exciting and complicated vessel bringing together a all these Hopi birds in a contemporary manner! Mark has made it an important part of his career to create the blushes in the firing process. The depth of the coloration gives his vessels such life! It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.
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August 18, Pasatiempo Review
“Charles S. King’s new book, Spoken Through Clay: Native Pottery in the Southwest, The Eric S. Dobkin Collection, is spectacularly heavy —which is a problem from a practical standpoint, because once you open it, you won’t want to put it down. With dreamy tintype artist portraits by Diné photographer Will Wilson, dazzlingly crisp images from Addison Doty, and intimate first-person essays written by dozens of artists, the book is a visually delicious, intellectually consuming foray into historic and contemporary Southwestern pottery. In short, prepare to swoon.
If you’re thinking of this as a coffee-table book, you’ll need to imagine a decently sized coffee table. The book is more than a foot tall and, when opened, two feet wide, but its outsize appearance belies the often delicate beauty of its contents: hundreds of individual pieces of pottery from Eric S. Dobkin’s exquisitely curated collection — arguably the largest and most important of its kind. Gallery owner, author, and Pueblo pottery expert King designed Spoken Through Clay to be approachable for those unfamiliar with Native American pottery. “In the age of social media, I wanted to make the book both visually striking and personal,” King said. The book opens with essays by King, Dobkin, and curator Peter Held, who calls clay “the most archival of materials … seductive, sensuous, responsive, geologic, and malleable.”
“I wanted the end result of the book to be that the reader would connect with the artists in a personal way, beyond just the art, and understand the time it takes to become an artist, to achieve success,” King said. Sprawling yet intimate, Spoken Through Clay introduces its readers not just to the beauty of Southwestern pottery but also to the fascinating stories of the people who make it.Iris McLister, Pasatiempo
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FEATURED ARTISTS Grace Medicine Flower • Dextra Quotskuyva • Autumn Borts-Medlock • Jody Naranjo • Harrison Begay Jr. • Jordan Roller • Sara Fina Tafoya • Lonnie Vigil • Margaret Tafoya • Steve Lucas • LuAnn Tafoya • Loren Ami • Toni Roller • Popovi Da • Linda Tafoya-Sanchez • Mark Tahbo • James Ebelacker• Yvonne Lucas • Jeff Roller • Lisa Holt • Harlan Reano • Nampeyo • Jacquie Stevens • Nathan Youngblood • Jacob Koopee Jr. • Jennifer Moquino • Christopher Youngblood • Maria Martinez • Tony Da • Tammy Garcia • Virgil Ortiz • Joseph Lonewolf • Johnathan Naranjo • Nancy Youngblood • Les Namingha • Russell Sanchez • Christine McHorse • Richard Zane Smith • Rondina Huma • Susan Folwell • Dominique Toya • Jody Folwell
Spoken Through Clay features the pottery of iconic Native American artists from historic potters Nampeyo and Maria Martinez, to contemporary potters Tammy Garcia, Virgil Ortiz, and many others, are featured in a new book published by the Museum of New Mexico Press. Spoken Through Clay: Native Pottery of the Southwest showcases nearly three hundred pottery vessels from the acclaimed Eric S. Dobkin Collection, covering a wide range of mostly Pueblo artists from the Southwest.
“The physical scale of the vessels combined with the depth of the contemporary collection [is] breathtaking,” says author Charles S. King. The book is part of a “transitional process of looking to the clay, the vessel, and the potter’s voice and allowing the pieces to stand on the merit of their artistic integrity.”
The book includes portraits and voices of renowned potters speaking about their artistry and technique, families, culture, and traditions. Many of the artists are connected by Pueblos, generations, or family members. Dynamic color photography captures the depth and dimension of the pieces, while the artists provide an illuminating perspective through narrative captions. Artists, academics, collectors, family members, and gallerists add additional insight about the lives, historical context, and importance of these potters and their work.
SPOKEN THROUGH CLAY Native Pottery of the Southwest The Eric S. Dobkin Collection
By Charles S. King Essay by Peter Held
Artist portraits by Will Wilson
ISBN: 978-0-89013-624-9
352 pages, 320 color plates, 40 artist portraits
Publication Date: August 01, 2017
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Charles S. King is the author of Born of Fire: The Life and Pottery of Margaret Tafoya, The Life and Art of Tony Da, Virgil Ortiz: Revolt 1680/2180, and numerous articles on Pueblo pottery. He has served on boards of art associations, judged pottery at prestigious events, and lectures about the art form. His business King Galleries represents many of today’s leading Native potters and important historic works in clay. Charles lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.