Quotskuyva, Dextra – 10.5″ Wide “Hummingbirds” Jar (1980s)
$ 8,800.00
This is an important large and creative jar by Dextra Quostkuyva Nampeyo. She is known for her creative designs and forms that have dramatically influenced the world of Hopi-Tewa pottery. The piece is coil-built and thin walled! It is from the mid-1980s and has a variety of experimental techniques for the time. The shape has a wide shoulder and sloping top. Half of the bowl is polished and half is matte. At the shoulder there is a large rectangle carved through the clay. The polished side has no design. The unpolished half has a large hummingbird as the design. It is painted with bee-weed (black) and polished red areas. Behind the bird is a more “realistic” hummingbird just slightly extending into the polished area. In front of the bird are a classic hummingbird wing and tail design. The bowl was traditionally fired to create the blushes on the surface. The shape, designs, and colorations are fascinating on this piece. Why is it important? In the early 1980s, Dextra became the voice at Hopi for defying expectations of Hopi-Tewa pottery. She would create new shapes or revise classic Nampeyo designs. The half polished-half matte was always her way to say that the clay should be allowed to speak. I think it is interesting that she chose top paint on the matte sections (which is more difficult), than on the polished area. The carved section simply challenges the idea of what is a “perfect” bowl. The piece seems to ask the viewer to set aside their pre-conceived ideas for Hopi-Tewa pottery, and just enjoy her experimentation as much as she enjoyed making it! The bowl was traditionally fired to create the blushes on the surface. It is from the early 1980s and painted with bee-weed (black) and red clay. It is signed, “Dextra” on the bottom with a corn plant for Corn Clan. It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.
Dextra said of her pottery:
If I dream about different designs, I dream this should be here and that should be there. Once I start doing that I get up and try to sketch it. I leave it, and then I think about it. I look at the other sherds to see if they have some connection to what was there. What kind of life they had. It seems so similar to what I can see. I didn’t want to ignore it. It won’t hurt to go ahead and put it on the pot, if that’s what it’s meant for. Another dream, a repeat of the same one. So I decided there’s a reason why. So I’ll go and put it on the pot. Nobody knows the reason why, except myself. Unless they ask for the meaning, if they are interested enough. The dreams lead me to something new. It’s kind of funny. I worried that people would not like what I was doing. My mom said that because you are changing it people are not going to like it. I thought, I don’t know. All these ideas about life in this world, what to leave and what’s important in life. ” Dextra Quotskuyva, Spoken Through Clay
In stock
This is an important large and creative jar by Dextra Quostkuyva Nampeyo. She is known for her creative designs and forms that have dramatically influenced the world of Hopi-Tewa pottery. The piece is coil-built and thin walled! It is from the mid-1980s and has a variety of experimental techniques for the time. The shape has a wide shoulder and sloping top. Half of the bowl is polished and half is matte. At the shoulder there is a large rectangle carved through the clay. The polished side has no design. The unpolished half has a large hummingbird as the design. It is painted with bee-weed (black) and polished red areas. Behind the bird is a more “realistic” hummingbird just slightly extending into the polished area. In front of the bird are a classic hummingbird wing and tail design. The bowl was traditionally fired to create the blushes on the surface. The shape, designs, and colorations are fascinating on this piece. Why is it important? In the early 1980s, Dextra became the voice at Hopi for defying expectations of Hopi-Tewa pottery. She would create new shapes or revise classic Nampeyo designs. The half polished-half matte was always her way to say that the clay should be allowed to speak. I think it is interesting that she chose top paint on the matte sections (which is more difficult), than on the polished area. The carved section simply challenges the idea of what is a “perfect” bowl. The piece seems to ask the viewer to set aside their pre-conceived ideas for Hopi-Tewa pottery, and just enjoy her experimentation as much as she enjoyed making it! The bowl was traditionally fired to create the blushes on the surface. It is from the early 1980s and painted with bee-weed (black) and red clay. It is signed, “Dextra” on the bottom with a corn plant for Corn Clan. It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.
Dextra said of her early pottery:
“I was watching my mom (Rachel Nampeyo) all the time, and I was picking up everything she was doing. I found my own polishing stones. I would collect clays. My mother didn’t like it when I did different types of designs. She was different in her ideas. My mother, she went so far as to say that whatever our great-grandmother had reproduced from old designs—those were important designs. We’re supposed to have the basics, she’d say. The big six. Don’t part from that. The six traditional designs. One of them is the migration design, the eagle feather design, the hummingbird design, the horned lizard, the moth design, and parrots. Those are the ones that started with Lesso and Nampeyo. The designs are mainly from Sikyatki people—it was their pottery that was dug out when they were excavating. They were beautiful designs they had used quite a bit.” Dextra Quotskuyva, Spoken Through Clay
Brand
Quotskuyva, Dextra Nampeyo (1928-2019)
