This large monos figure by Virgil Ortiz is from 1996.  The figure is coil-built, painted with bee-weed, and traditionally fired.  Take a closer look at the piece and there are a lot of “whys”.  Why are the hands on backward? Why the beard in the mouth? When I asked Virgil, he said this was a piece about his mother, Seferina Ortiz. He said when he was younger, she would be so tired at times when making storytellers, and she would put the hands on backward.  When he would point it out to her, she would say, “put a sock in it”.  Virgil said he made this piece to tell this story.  The figure has a lot of detail design!  The front has a complex beard with sprouting seeds.  The back has a classic large flower medallion.  Knowing the story and the complexity of the piece brings a smile to me and marks the piece as a point in time in his life and career.  The figure is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair. It has his cipher on the bottom of the foot.

The Monos figurative art from Cochiti Pueblo has a fascinating story of resilience, resistance, and revival. The historic Monos figures were made in Cochiti from around 1880 to about 1920. Their function was to provide social commentary in a world that was inundated by the new arrival of the railroads and an influx of “foreigners” to the region. “Cochiti potters engaged in social criticism, conducting a discourse, often through parody, on the changing occupants of the Pueblo World. Figures expressed the ways that potters viewed those who differed from themselves, and many are humorous or satirical.

Although the potters were predominantly women, the figures were mostly men and most often Spanish, New Mexican, or Anglo-American in descent and almost certainly depicted local wealthy merchants, cowboys, and priests. As a coping mechanism for the Cochiti potters, the figures were a subtle and subversive form of empowerment. The regional traveling circus or “freak shows” that came into the New Mexico Territory were also a source of inspiration. “Cochiti potters observed all kinds of people with whom they came into contact, and they recorded their impressions of them in clay in a way that communicated amusement, criticism, or simply an active interest in the rapidly changing local scene. Because the figurines were not used by Pueblo insiders but were made for sale to some of the same outsiders they portrayed, potters had to develop a keen understanding of what their targeted audience, the Western other, would understand, appreciate and buy. This use of the figures for social commentary is where they derived their name, Monos, which means “mocking,” “cute,” or “monkey,” possibly as a pejorative relating to their makers