The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 13, 2024

Swirl Melon Bowl

Swirl Melon Bowl

1994
(Santa Clara Pueblo, b. 1955)
Native North America, Southwest, New Mexico
ceramic, slip
Overall: 15 x 23.1 cm (5 7/8 x 9 1/8 in.)
James Albert and Mary Gardiner Ford Memorial Fund 1994.199
Location: not on view

Description

Nancy Youngblood is known for “melon” jars with deep, perfectly regular, hand-carved ribs—here, 32 swirl dramatically around the chamber, each polished to a sheen. Youngblood belongs to Santa Clara Pueblo’s fabled Tafoya pottery family and she is committed to preserving family techniques and forms, including the melon. She works in black ware, a Santa Clara tradition, and takes no shortcuts, offering a prayer before digging her own clay, building the vessel with clay coils, patiently polishing with handed-down polishing stones, and firing in an open fire rather than a kiln.
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, “New Acquisitions Enter the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Permanent Collection,” February 14, 1995, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 89-90, no. 138
  • Parall(elles): A History of Women in Design. Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (organizer) (February 18-May 28, 2023) https://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/exhibitions/parallelles/.
    Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 7-May 30, 2010).
    CMA 2010: "Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection" March 7 - May 30, 2010
    The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).
    MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art", no. 138, p. 124, repr. p. 90.
  • {{cite web|title=Swirl Melon Bowl|url=false|author=Nancy Youngblood|year=1994|access-date=13 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1994.199