Southwest Native pottery tiles on exhibit at Arizona State Museum through summer

This Hopi tile is from the Nelle Dermont Collection, c. 1900. Arizona State Museum. It depicts two kachina maidens grinding corn at a mealing bin. The maidens are flanked by Heheya-aumutaqua (uncle) kachinas.

This Hopi tile is from the Nelle Dermont Collection, c. 1900. Arizona State Museum. It depicts two kachina maidens grinding corn at a mealing bin. The maidens are flanked by Heheya-aumutaqua (uncle) kachinas.

TUCSON-Worldwide, tile making goes back to the earliest days of the ceramic medium. Here in the Southwest we probably think mainly of Mexican ceramic floor tile, which are functional and decorative. But what about Indian tile making?

Arizona State Museum (ASM) is highlighting an exhibit of the exquisite tile-making traditions among the Southwest Pueblo peoples. It is called Clay2: Southwest Indian Pottery Tiles and is open now through Oct. 14.

Hopis in particular have been prolific tile makers since the late 19th century. About 1885, Hopi potters began to produce pocket-sized decorated flat tiles to sell to visitors who were arriving in increasing numbers via the Santa Fe Railroad.

The success of that market-no doubt influenced by the portability factor and sustained by the affordability factor-inspired potters from the Rio Grande Pueblos of New Mexico to experiment with their own interpretations of the form. By 1902, the Fred Harvey Company began selling tiles in curio shops all along the Santa Fe Trail.

"Historically, not only were tiles portable, they were also affordable relative to other Hopi art forms," explains ASM Director Hartman H. Lomawaima, a member of the Hopi tribe. "School teachers were among an appreciative and ready-made consumer audience for tiles. In the early days, teachers were recruited by the Bureau of Indian Affairs from the East and deep South.

They purchased tiles for gift-giving occasions and many used them to decorate their fireplaces. A fireplace accented with Hopi tiles is beautiful thing to behold!"

The pocket-friendly portability and wallet-friendly affordability of the tile genre are still strong selling points to this day, as artist Jean Sahme points out, "I usually sell out of tiles on the first day of Indian Market because they are easy for tourists to carry home."

Through the 1930s and '40s, Hopi potters Fannie Nampeyo and Sadie Adams; and Harvianna Toribio from Zia Pueblo were particularly notable tile artists. Sadie Adams'daughter, Lorna Lomakema, recalls, "My earliest recollection of my mother and tiles was when the Coltons at the Museum of Northern Arizona asked her to make the tiles framing the announcement boards at the entrance."

Over the past 60 years, Native artists from many Southwest communities have continued to craft a great variety of tile styles and decorations. As with all of the dynamic Native artistic traditions, tile making can reflect traditional approaches, materials, techniques and designs, but it can also express modern inventiveness and contemporary motifs.

Each one is a wonderful little self-contained story. Lomawaima characterizes tiles as "snapshots" and "Native Polaroids. " " The majority of tiles I have seen are flat, rectangular and about the same dimensions of a photo taken with a Polaroid," he explains.

"Potters use tiles to depict their favorite Kachina friend while others have used the "ceramic canvass" to depict elaborate ceremonies that take place in the Kivas during the winter months. Hopi law ordinances forbid photography of ceremonies, so Hopi artists who wish to document certain Kachina figures or events, use paintings.

Clan symbols and geometrics are experimented with on tiles and some ultimately are transferred to decorate whole vessels." 

The delightful exhibition Clay2: Southwest Indian Pottery Tiles includes specimens from Arizona State Museum's own collection as well as several on loan from Pat and Kim Messier, co-authors of a book entitled Hopi and Pueblo Tiles, scheduled to be published in the spring by Rio Nuevo Publishers.

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