LIVING HISTORY
POTTER JUAN QUEZADA -
Sr. Quezada's curiosity and determination changed the destiny of an almost abandoned village in Chihuahua, Mexico by reviving an anciet tequnique for firing pottery and creating a new local industry.
The Taos Community Economic Development Center hosted Sr. Quezada for a demonstration.
See photos below.
Click to enlarge
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ART IN TAOS
What little we know of the beginnings of art in Taos valley are scattered bits of knowledge we try to piece together from long before any formally documented history. 6000 year old pictographs have been discovered in the area. There are later examples of clay slips used to paint the interiors of pueblo rooms and kivas with sometimes representative images. These could be considered the first examples of art in the Taos valley. What we do know for certain is that which has been documented and dated by archeologists from digs in the area.
POTTERY, OUR FIRST DOCUMENTED ART FORM -
1000 A.D to Present
It was during what some archeologists call the Developmental Period (600 – 900 A.D.) that the first firmly documented examples of art, in the form of pottery, have been discovered. The utilization of the first farming techniques led to the need for food storage and yielded pottery as a method of preserving precious crops. Pithouses and other examples of permanent housing sites also emerged near the same time in history
Pottery timeline:
1000 – 1200 A.D. is known as the Valdez Phase. In the Arroyo Seco and Arroyo Hondo areas, Taos/Kwahe’e black on white pottery was made along with a plain, incised or neck-banded ware known as Taos Gray.
1200-1250 A.D. is known as the Pot Creek phase. During this time we see the Santa Fe Black on White or carbon painted ware. Taos Gray was replaced by a corrugated type of pottery. Also during this phase small “unit pueblos” began to appear in Arroyo Seco, Arroyo Hondo and Ranchos de Taos as well as Pot Creek. The first examples of Kivas emerged in this period.
1250 - 1350 A.D. is known as the Talpa Phase. During this phase the black on white methods continue while the people of the valley expanded their habitation. The pueblo at Pot Creek grew to perhaps 300 ground floor rooms. Taos and Picuris also became large population bases.
1350 – 1500 A.D. is an unnamed phase. Polychrome and glazed ceramics date to this phase.
1500 A.D. – Present - Micaceous pottery is common today and is believed to have become a major type of ceramic in the late 1500s and is a dominant type of pottery at Taos Pueblo.
Pueblo pottery is typically made from coiled clay, rather than thrown on a potter's wheel. The pots were fired in an outdoor pit over a wood fire.
You can find images of all these types of pottery on the internet:
Taos Grey pottery - 1000 – 1200 A.D.
Santa Fe Black on White or Carbon Painted pottery -
1200-1350 A.D.
Polychrome Taos ceramics pottery – 1350 – 1500 A.D.
Micaceous – 1500 - Present.
THE SANTEROS - 1550 to Present
The first documented Spaniards to set foot in the New Mexico included a member of the Catholic Church as well as a Spanish conquistador. In the year 1539 Fray Marcos de Niza, an African slave Esteban and the famous conquistador Cabeza de Vaca were survivors of an expedition that was shipwrecked on the Gulf Coast. From the beach of what is now south Texas they embarked on an eight year trek in an attempt to return to New Spain somewhere to the west.
The first Europeans to see Taos Pueblo came in 1540. From that point forward the colonization of the area was troubled by conflict and all-out war until the final rebellion at Taos Pueblo was put down and the first San Geronimo mission was built in 1706.
It was the strength of the catholic faith and the inability to bring the religious icons from Spain on the arduous journey to the region that forced settlers and missionaries to create their own representations of saints carved from the wood indigenous to the area mostly pine and cottonwood, buffalo hide and eventually tin. Native natural pigments made from colored soil, plants and soot were used for color.
So the art of the Santero was born. Then, as now, the traditional artists were trained by their fathers who produced the artwork either for the church or as commissions for settlers. To this day many of the Santeros we see in markets and galleries learned the craft from their fathers and in a few recent instances their mothers, for many generations.
There are two common forms of this art form. Bultos, carved wooden figures or retablos, paintings on wood panels. As missions were constructed this beautiful new form of art and worship grew throughout the New Mexico and Colorado region and eventually saturated the Southwest and California.
You can find images of this art form on the internet: Santos, Bultos and Retablos, all 1550 AD to present.
THE MODERN ART COLONY OF TAOS - 1900 to Present
Taos was first visited by artists on a tour in just before the turn of the century, notably Ernest Blumenschein. But as so many who came after them, these artists were captured by the beauty and magic of the valley and decided to stay creating the destination for artists we know today. This groundbreaking and hugely talented group of artists that came together here were unique in style, or rather in their variety of styles unlike the traditional schools of art at the time. The names are familiar to many, Ansel Adams, Georgia O’Keeffe, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Andrew Dasburg, Nicolai Fechin, to name a few.
As you wander the galleries and art studios of Taos, the history of this valley is far more than relic architecture or museum pieces. It is a still living force that you can witness changing as the potters, santeros and painters continue to build their style and technique on the centuries of tradition that are even stronger today than they were 1000 years ago.
TEWA CREATION STORY -
In the beginning the Tewa people lived in darkness in a land called Sipofene, beneath a lake to the north. Humans, animals, and supernatural beings all lived together there. Winter spirit White Corn Maiden and summer spirit Blue Corn Woman sent a messenger to explore Sipofene, and then to explore the world above. This man was the first "Made" person. He was made the Hunt Chief.
The Hunt Chief then "made" two men. Winter Chief was to care for the people in winter and Summer Chiefs was to care for the people during the summer.
The new chiefs sent six pairs of brothers to explore the world above. Each pair was known by a different color, and each explored in a different direction. The blue pair went north, the yellow pair traveled west, the red to the south, the white to the east, the dark pair ventured to the zenith, and the all-colored pair to the nadir. All of these brothers were known as the Towa Ž.
The Towa Ž tried to venture out into the new world several times but failed and had to return to Sipofene. Upon the first return, the medicine man was "made" as the fourth Made Person to help keep the people well. Upon each return a new group was "made: The Kossa and Kwirana (clowns) were created to entertain the people; the Scalp chief was made to ensure success in war; and the Kwiyoh (womenÕs society) was created to help the Scalp chief.
Finally, the people were complete, and could successfully move into the new "above" world. Before they left, the Hunt Chief divided the people between the Winter and Summer Chiefs. The Summer group went south along the west side of the Rio Grande. The Winter group went along the mountains to the east of the river. But the Winter and Summer peoples came back together, and made the Tewa communities we see today of people from both the Summer and Winter.
