The Story of Mata Ortiz Pottery

Why is it said that in a small, lost town in Chihuahua, Mexico, there is the largest concentration of artists on the face of the earth?

Why are some of the contemporary works of art created in this little town sold for incredibly high prices on the international market?

Why are thousands of tourists from the United States, Europe, and Japan, as well as other parts of the world, coming to this place?

Why have I heard many people say that since they became familiar with these works of art, their lives have never been the same?

Twelve-year-old Juan Quezada had dropped out of school to work in the fields and help support his family’s meager income. His surroundings were the same as they had been 600 years ago for the members of a sophisticated culture called “Casas Grandes,” who built the city of Paquimé, flourished, and then inexplicably disappeared.

Over the ruins of that lost civilization, a poor, dusty town, lacking in everything, was built and named Juan Mata Ortiz. There, little Juan Quezada, always reserved and alone, began gathering firewood. During his adventures, he often found ceramic remains that testified to the artistic level of the inhabitants of ancient Paquimé. Their designs and forms caught Juan’s attention, and with extraordinary intuition, he began to reproduce the techniques used hundreds of years earlier. Juan did not work alone. Several friends worked together, making discoveries about pottery. They were the legendary Felix Ortiz, Rojelio Silveira, and Emeterio Ortiz.

Together, they kept the ceramic shards, examining them over and over again. It soon occurred to them that the materials used to make these pieces of art had to be close to where he was, and sure enough, he was able to combine the right amounts of different clays found in the mountains near Mata Ortiz. They also experimented with various materials to produce the pigments he needed.

Eventually, with their hands, serrated knives, and skill, they learned to give the walls of the earthenware vessels a uniform thickness. They worked on those ornamental designs, using drawings they traced in a symmetrical 180-degree pattern. These drawings were very similar to those they had seen in the pre-Columbian ceramics. They invented their own technique for firing the pieces, using cow manure as fuel. To protect their pieces from direct fire, they would cover them with cans or ceramic flower pots, which they would place over rocks so that the hot air would circulate.

They never realized the magnitude of their accomplishments, and everything suggested they would go unnoticed by the world.  However, the greatest stories are often woven from chance opportunities.  Juan finally gave several of his pots to some salesmen, who, in turn, took them to the United States.  There, they exchanged them for clothing at Bob's Swap Shop, a junk store in Deming, New Mexico.  And that’s how the other protagonist of this story appeared: Spencer MacCallum, an American anthropologist specializing in Art History who liked to browse those stores. 

When Spencer entered Bob’s Swap Shop and saw the pots, he couldn’t help but to buy them.  Once he got home, he observed them time and again, admiring their beauty, the perfection of their design, and almost unearthly symmetry.  Spencer couldn’t stop thinking that somewhere in the world existed an extraordinary artist, whose works of art were being sold in modest swap shops.

After a month, he decided to find this unknown artist. His search was successful. In just a few days, Spencer found himself in front of a very surprised Juan, who couldn’t believe that this American man had come all the way to the lost, dusty town of Mata Ortiz. What he found even more incredible, though, was Spencer’s generous offer, which said, “In exchange for a monthly stipend, please dedicate yourself solely to producing art.” And note that Mr. MacCallum did not say “produce ollas, pots”; he had such confidence in Juan‘s talent that whatever Juan decided to create would be artistically worthwhile.

Among the many magical moments in this story, this one seems to me the most fascinating: the encounter between two extraordinary men, destined to change the fortune of that little town and to leave us an artistic legacy whose reach is still unknown.

What happened after that day is no less interesting.  Due to Spencer’s promotion mainly in the southern part of the United States, Juan accomplished more and more every day as a potter. He first taught his family, then other members of the Mata Ortiz community, to work with ceramics. Today, 400 artists make up this artistic movement, dedicated to pottery. Their economic level as a community has increased incredibly.

Juan Quezada has been recognized worldwide. His art has been exhibited in major museums, and in 1999, the Mexican government awarded him the National Art Award, the highest honor given to an artist in this country.
 

THE ART OF MATA ORTIZ
“Their imagery evokes Op Art, M.C. Escher, and computer chips in combination with plumed serpents and macaws.” - William Gilbert

With an olla as their canvas, the potters of Mata Ortiz have imprinted on them not only recreations of ancestral symbols, but have also searched within their own spirit and creativity, conceiving a unique artistic language that is creative and original.  They have moved beyond the imitation of pre-Hispanic ceramics and into the refined creation of contemporary art.

It is considered art rather than craft because their work is not routinely elaborated in a repetitive, popular style.  The potters of Mata Ortiz combine both intellectual and aesthetic elements.  Each artist has freely looked for his or her own form of expression, his or her own language through which to communicate.

What is it that makes these ceramics a unique movement in the world of art?

*It is not an activity which has been inherited by previous generations.  Centuries had passed without there being ceramic art in this area.

* A large number of artists concentrated in one place.  It is incredibly intriguing that so many skilled artists could come out of such a small place.

*The diversity among the styles.  If we observe Juan Quezada’s work, along with works done by Laura Bugarini, Leonel Lopez, Macario Ortiz, Eli Navarrete, and Manolo Rodriquez, what would be the common denominator of the style? How could we define the style of Mata Ortiz? Is there a particular style? I believe that what unites this artistic movement is primarily the geographic region; in second place, the clay and the pigments; thirdly, the methods or techniques which are used to create these works of art.

 *The speed at which this art has evolved.  In less than 30 years, the movement has gone from imitating pre-Hispanic designs to developing creativity that surprises us every day.  It is now considered that Mata Ortiz has reached its classic period.

 *The need to innovate and grow artistically.  This is why the artistic evolution in Mata Ortiz has been so rapid.  The artists are not satisfied with what they have accomplished.  They are constantly searching for new languages, new natural pigments, new clay, and techniques that will make them grow as artists. 

Undoubtedly, the art of Mata Ortiz will continue to surprise and bewitch us for many, many years to come.

Click here to see our Mata Ortiz pottery collection!