Artist Media Series
Living Artists
Historic
$ 4,200.00
This is an exceptional jar by Dextra Quotskuyva. She is certainly one of the great innovators among Hopi-Tewa potters. Her work began with more classic imagery and then has evolved over the years to more unique and stylized designs. This jar is from the early 1990s. The jar has a high shoulder and sloping neck. The piece has three different hummingbirds, all inspired by the Sikyatki pottery of the 1400s-1600s. The first is the “hummingbird face,” which is similar to that of the Hummingbird Katsina. The next hummingbird has stylized designs on its head, which represent that it is actually a hummingbird moth and not an actual hummingbird. The hummingbird moth is often depicted in Sikyatki pottery. The last is the actual hummingbird! The jar is painted with bee-wee and clay slips that are polished. Note that even the neck is polished red! The jar was traditionally fired to create the blushes on the surface. Typical of her designs, she uses the negative space of the polished clay surface to draw the eye to her tightly painted designs. The jar is signed on the bottom, “Dextra” and an ear of corn, as she is Corn Clan. It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair. Dextra has been the subject of a retrospective of her pottery at the Wheelwright called, “Painted Perfection“.