Rectangular tapa cloth with decorative geometric patterns in dark and light brown against a medium-brown base. The cloth is divided by dark brown lines into three distinct rows. Each row contains a series of eight pairs of triangles in which each pair contains one regular and one inverted triangle. Pairs face each other across a medium-brown line. Each triangle has smaller dark-brown or black triangle inside it, outlined in light brown. The entire cloth has a light-brown border decorated with a black swag pattern.

Helen Cordero, Cochiti Pueblo, invented the concept of the Storyteller figure in 1964. She had been working with leather crafts but the poor income discouraged her. She felt her skills were not great enough to be a classical potter so when her cousin mentioned why didn’t she try doing figures , something that this Pueblo had done a great deal of in the 19th century, Cordero thought she could try. Effigies, small fetishes and charms made of stone, wood or clay are part of numerous ceremonies functioning to help maintain the balances between the natural, supernatural, and social order of things. But in the 19th century a commercial genre developed through encouragement of the Trading Posts. These pueblo sculptures were generally small figures of a singing woman holding a baby, a water bowl or platter; small, singing figures sitting cross-legged; or a standing male singing a song with one hand on their hip and another to their head. We have one such early male example from the late 19th century in our collection (02.257.2473.) When Cordero thought of a new subject for her first sculpture she envisioned her Grandfather. He was a famous storyteller and she had fond memories of him gathering all grandchildren around and relating stories to them as well as singing the songs associated with the characters. So Helen made two significant modifications in the singing mother tradition. She modeled a sitting male figure and placed a realistic number of children on him. Almost immediately her figures brought her acclaim and success. She won first, second and third prizes at the New Mexico State Fair, SWAIA’s first prize in Santa Fe, and first at the Heard Indian Market. She often did sculpture modeling demonstrations all over the country in Museums, international exhibitions and galleries. In fact her sculptures have generated and entire category of Native American pottery for which Cochiti Pueblo has become renowned. Helen continued making figures for over twenty years, always with a male figure, his eyes closed because he is thinking and he has numerous children scrambling all over him, in fact up to as many as 32.(This one has 14 children). Each large figure however is different wearing different clothes and jewelry, angled slightly differently, not a formulaic size, and each child was different in the same way. All are hand modeled. This storyteller, fashioned in 1987, is the last one Helen Cordero ever did and originally she was going to keep it. The collector visited her in her home and they got along so well she agreed to sell it. It is a large example done when Helen was at her very best. Strong, solid looking male figure, closed eyes, open mouth, necklace, headband, using colors Helen preferred of warm natural rust, black and cream, with delightful children - embodies all the very best of Helen’s artistry. The Museum actually does not have a story teller figure in the collection although our contemporary Roxanne Swentzell piece “Making Babies for Indian Market” is an ironic ‘take’ on this genre. This sculpture could be used in exhibitions featuring Native American or cross-cultural works: the human figure, pottery, invention of new genres, spoken language, storytelling, song, and children in art - the list if large. Susan Kennedy Zeller, Ph.D. Associate Curator of Native American Art

Signed: "Potter Sofia Medina decorator Rafael Medina".

Gift of Ingeborg de Beausacq

This water jar of classic Pueblo shape by Marcellus and Elizabeth Toya Medina, a husband and wife team, illustrates both the old and the new. Circling the jar, in the background, are depictions of traditional masked Kachinas who perform in religious ceremonies. Bursting into dance in front of these figures are naturalistic, muscled, male Pueblo dancers in very active dance positions, also wearing traditional regalia.

The pigment is black.

Large brown tapa cloth decorated with geometric designs in black and light brown. The linear designs create four chevron-like patterns bisected by a column of circles. These circles alternate between pairs of black and medium brown dots. The cloth is organized into five rows of two long rectangles. All four sides are bordered by a black line. Two sides have an addition border of alternating black and medium brown triangles against a light brown base. The vertical line at the cloth’s centre is framed on both sides by the same triangular pattern.

Museum Expedition 1904, Museum Collection Fund

Museum Expedition 1904, Museum Collection Fund

Museum Expedition 1904, Museum Collection Fund