Namingha, Les – Zuni Jar with Rosettes and Checkerboard Designs

10.5"w x 7.5"h

$ 6,200.00

 

This is a spectacular Zuni-inspired jar by Les Namingha.  He learned to make pottery from his aunt, Dextra Quotskuyva, and is known for his innovative forms and designs.  Les is both Zuni and Hopi-Tewa.  I always like to see when it draws from his Zuni heritage for his pottery to create modernist works.  This large jar is a classic Zuni shape with a wide shoulder and a short neck.  What you can’t see, but can feel on this piece, is that the base comes up to a slightly round shoulder and rounds up from there.  It captures that historic form of Zuni pottery but is modified.  The jar is slipped white and painted. The designs are the classic rosettes and checkerboard patterns around the shoulder and rainbirds and rainclouds around the neck.  The rosettes have a modern appearance with simplified imagery. The areas separating them are stylized butterflies.  Around the neck of the jar, the painting is intricate and precise.  There is both fineline and hachure line work.  The rainbird imagery is part of this area of design.  The imagery all comes from traditional Zuni pottery, yet with a re-interpretation through contemporary eyes.  It’s all the little details and the precision of the painting that make this jar so special.  Definitely interesting to see how he takes classic imagery and modernizes it in his style and grows with each piece.  The jar is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Les Namingha”.