Juan Quezada Celado (1940-2022) was a Mexican potter known for the re-interpretation of Casas Grandes pottery known as Mata Ortiz pottery.   He is certainly the most famous of the potters of Mata Ortiz.  His story is exceptional.  He began making revival pottery inspired by the Casa Grande pottery from 1175-1400.   Juan began he began experimenting with ways to duplicate the pots he found and studied, but progress took several years since he had no ceramics experience.  He worked out digging the clay, the temper, and coil-building each piece. In 1976, an American anthropologist named Spencer MacCallum found one of Quezada’s pots in a shop in Deming, NM.  He went looking for more pieces and finally found Juan in the town of Mata Ortiz.  Juan went beyond copying pre-Hispanic pottery to modernizing the designs and forms.  MacCallum provided contacts, sales experience, and more to gain access to markets by showing pieces to museum curators, academics, gallery owners, and others. These efforts allowed Quezada to exhibit at prestigious galleries in Arizona, New Mexico, and California in 1979 and 1980 under the name of Juan Quezada and the New Tradition, establishing Mata Ortiz pottery as a legitimate art movement.  This a very large, thin-walled bowl.  It is painted with swirling birds and thin lines.  It has an interesting provenance as it was originally purchased by Al Qoyawayma from Juan.  Al said about this piece:

“I purchased the bowl at the Heard 50 years ago (mid-1970’s).  I had a long discussion with Juan as me being a fledging potter. I asked about design “sources”: (ruins in Mexico looking Hopi or Chaco), clay sources and mixture, construction technique, polishing, etc.  It was interesting to meet the person who began the revival of Mata Ortiz pottery.  The bowl is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Juan Quezada”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.