Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery Through January 12, 2025
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Pueblo (Acoma), Acoma Jar with Abstract Bird Design, early 1900s, clay, slip, and paints, Vilcek Foundation, IL.2020 – VF2019.02.02. Photograph © Vilcek Foundation
Pueblo (Acoma), Vase, c. 1890–1900, clay, slip, and paints, Indian Arts Research Center, gift of Roberta Robey, 1961, IAF.2796. Photograph © Peter Gabriel Studio
Pueblo (Acoma), Water Jar, c. 1890–1910, clay, slip, and paints, Indian Arts Research Center, Indian Arts Fund purchase for the permanent collection. Photograph © Peter Gabriel Studio
Pueblo (Tesuque), Figurine (Rain God), before 1900, clay, slip, and poster paint, Indian Arts Research Center, gift of unknown donor, 1999, SAR. 1999-9-31. Photograph © Peter Gabriel Studio
Juanita Johnson, Pueblo (Acoma), Jar, 1920–25, clay, slip, and paints, Indian Arts Research Center, gift of Carlos Vierra, 1925, IAF.374. Photograph © Peter Gabriel Studio
“Enchanting . . . each pot has a story to tell.”
—Wall Street Journal
Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery offers a visionary understanding of Pueblo pots as vessels of community-based knowledge and personal experience. Highlighting Pueblo voices and aesthetics, this traveling exhibition marks the first Native-curated exhibition on view at the MFAH. The presentation features more than 100 historical, modern, and contemporary items in clay.
Although Pueblo pottery has long been exhibited within the context of Eurocentric time lines and Western concepts of art and history, Grounded in Clay gives voice to the Pueblo Pottery Collective, a group of more than 60 individual members of 21 tribal communities who selected and wrote about artistically and culturally distinctive pots from two significant Pueblo pottery collections: the Indian Arts Research Center of the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Vilcek Foundation in New York City.
Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery combines individual voices from Native communities where pots have been made and used for millennia into an Indigenous group narrative. The approach illuminates Pueblo history and contemporary life, redefining concepts of Native art, history, and beauty from within, and challenging stereotypes about Native peoples.
► Publication
The illustrated exhibition catalogue is available through the MFA Shop (713.639.7360) and the Museum’s Hirsch Library (713.639.7325).
Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery / October 19, 2024–January 12, 2025
“Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery” was curated by the Pueblo Pottery Collective and organized by the School for Advanced Research and the Vilcek Foundation.
Generous support is provided by:
Duncan W. Corbett
Michael W. Dale
Colleen and Andrew Gold
Franny Koelsch Jeffries and John Jeffries
Alice C. Simkins
The Margaret Cooke Skidmore Exhibition Endowment
Ready to Visit?
Member and ALL ACCESS tickets include same-day admission to this Special Exhibition, all other Special Exhibitions, and the MFAH Permanent Collections.
Get Your Ticket