Julián Martínez, also known as Pocano (1879–1943), was a San Ildefonso Pueblo

potter A potter is someone who makes pottery. Potter may also refer to: Places United States *Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US * Potter, Arkansas *Potter, Nebraska * Potters, New Je ...

,"Julian Martinez."
''Smithsonian American Art Museum''. Retrieved 7 April 2012. painter, and the patriarch of a family of Native American ceramic artists in the United States.

Background

Martínez was born in 1879 in San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. His name, Pocano, means "Coming of the Spirits" in Tewa. He worked as a farmer, general laborer, and janitor, in addition to being an artist. He was elected governor of San Ildefonso.Lester 344 Martínez married matriarch potter Maria Martinez, and together they had a son Popovi Da, who was also a potter.Lester 343 Maria is considered the preeminent creator of San Ildefonso blackware pottery; however Julian contributed to her accomplishments. Their son Popovi Da continued innovating Pueblo ceramic arts; his work has been widely exhibited and collected. Martinez died on March 6, 1943, in San Ildefonso Pueblo.

Work

The Martinez family was instrumental in reviving the San Ildefonso and creating the San Ildefonso black-on-black, matte-on-shiny pottery technique. The Martínez family is credited for inventing a technique that would allow for areas of the pottery to have a matte finish and other areas to be a glossy jet black. Martínez, with help from anthropologist, Edgar Lee Hewett researched historical designs and reproduced them on the pottery, later modifying classical Pueblo designs to create his own. Martínez was also an easel painter. He painted scenes of Pueblo rituals as well as abstract designs with colored pencil and watercolor, and featured Western figurative types against blank backgrounds. He painted murals at the former

Santa Fe Indian School The Federal Government established the Santa Fe Indian School (SFIS) in 1890 to educate Native American children from tribes throughout the Southwestern United States. The purpose of creating SFIS was an attempt to assimilate the Native American c ...

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...

and Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. Martínez was part of an art movement called the San Ildefonso Self-Taught Group, which included such noted artists as Alfonso Roybal,

Tonita Peña Tonita Peña (born May 10, 1893 in San Ildefonso – died September 9, 1949 in Santo Domingo Pueblo) born as Quah Ah (meaning white coral beads) but also used the name Tonita Vigil Peña and María Antonia Tonita Peña. Peña was a renowned Pueb ...

, Abel Sanchez (Oqwa Pi), Crecencio Martinez, and Encarnación Peña.

Public collections

The artwork of Maria and Julian Martinez can be found in the following public collections. *

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

, New York *

Amerind Foundation The Amerind Foundation is a museum and research facility dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Amerindian, Native American cultures and their histories. Its facilities are located near the village of Dragoon, Arizona, Dragoon in Coc ...

, Dragoon, Arizona *

Amon Carter Museum of Art Amon may refer to: Mythology * Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra * Aamon, a Goetic demon People Momonym * Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah Given name * Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pu ...

, Fort Worth, Texas * Arizona State Museum, Tucson * Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio *

Cleveland Museum of Fine Arts The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian a ...

, Ohio *

Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collect ...

, Ohio *

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

, Hanover, New Hampshire * Denver Art Museum, Colorado *

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is an art museum on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma. Overview The University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art holds over 20,000 objects in its permanent collection. The museum c ...

, Norman, Oklahoma * Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma * Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska *

Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum The McNay Art Museum, founded in 1954 in San Antonio, is the first modern art museum in the U.S. state of Texas. The museum was created by Marion Koogler McNay's original bequest of most of her fortune, her important art collection and her 24-ro ...

, San Antonio, Texas *

Millicent Rogers Museum The Millicent Rogers Museum is an art museum in Taos, New Mexico, founded in 1956 by the family of Millicent Rogers. Initially the artworks were from the multi-cultural collections of Millicent Rogers and her mother, Mary B. Rogers, who donated ...

, Taos, New Mexico * Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey *

Minneapolis Institute of Arts The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

, Minnesota * Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe * Museum of Northern Arizona, Katherine Harvey Collection, Flagstaff * National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center, New York * National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. *

Newark Museum The Newark Museum of Art (formerly known as the Newark Museum), in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States, is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, Af ...

, Newark, NJ * Owensboro Museum of Fine Arts, Owensboro, Kentucky * Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma * Riverside Museum, New York * School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico *

Smithsonian Museum of American Art The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

, Washington, D.C. *

Southwest Museum of the American Indian The Southwest Museum of the American Indian is a museum, library, and archive located in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, above the north-western bank of the Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County) canyon and stream. The muse ...

, Los Angeles *

University of Pennsylvania Museum The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...

, Philadelphia *

Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian is a museum devoted to Native American arts. It is located in Santa Fe, New Mexico and was founded in 1937 by Mary Cabot Wheelwright, who came from Boston, and Hastiin Klah, a Navajo singer and medici ...

, Santa Fe, New Mexico

References

Notes

*Lester, Patrick D. ''The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters.'' Tulsa, OK: SIR Publications, 1995. . * Crawford, Virginia. "American Indian Painting." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 1 (1982): 3–17.

External links