LUCY LEWIS – (1898? – 1992)

Lucy Lewis lived her entire life in the area around the Acoma Pueblo in west-central where she was born. Entirely self-taught, she learned the art of making by watching others and making her own experiments. As her skills developed, she moved away from the more commercialized designs being done to appeal to the tourist trade and reached back into the past, to her ancestors the Anasazi for inspiration. Working in the traditional fashion she made thin-walled vessels, covered with white slip and then finished with delicate fine-lined decorations, sometimes with color added. Her work began winning awards and wider recognition followed; today she is regarded as one of the preeminent Native American ceramic artists, and is widely credited for reviving and bringing wide attention to the Acoma tradition.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT – LUCY LEWIS

“We give our thanks to the Creator with our corn meal that the clay is there.”1

1. Fauntleroy, Gussie. “Great Women Potters of the Past. Native Peoples 14 no. 6 (September/October 2001): 27.

RESUME – LUCY LEWIS

1898 (?) Born Lucy Martin, Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico

1956 Maria Martinez Special Award, Santa Fe Fiesta

1958 Indian Art fund Award First Award, 7th Annual Amer-Indian Art Exhibition, Los Angeles

1960-1961 First Prize, Santa Fe Indian Market

1972 Research Prize, Indian Art Fund of the School of American Research, Santa Fe, NM Multiple prizes, Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial First Award, Scottsdale National Indian Arts Council

1983 Governor of New Mexico Award for Outstanding Personal Contribution to the Art of the State, Santa Fe Woman of Achievement Award, Northwood Institute, Houston, TX

1992 The Women’s Caucus for the Arts

1992 Died, Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico

BIOGRAPHY – LUCY LEWIS

Acoma potter Lucy Martin Lewis was born around the turn of the 20th century (the exact date is unknown) at Acoma Pueblo, an ancient community whose location high on a mesa in west- central New Mexico has earned it the name of “Sky City.” While the exact founding the Pueblo is not known, it dates back at least 1,000 years and is believed to be the oldest, continuously occupied settlement in the . The tradition of Acoma pottery is equally ancient, dating back to at least 1750, and Lewis learned the techniques from family members, from watching others and experimenting on her own. Although she had no formal art training and no formal schooling, she is widely credited with reviving and ultimately attracting wide attention to the pottery of her people. Lewis grew up on the mesa, her childhood a typical upbringing for the time: helping other family members with sewing, cooking, farming and making pottery which was sold to travelers at the nearby train station in Grants, NM. She married and raised a family of nine children, continuing to take care of her household, help her husband with the farming, and make pots which she then sold at a stand on the old Route 66. Although she herself had no formal education, she insisted all of her children attend school.

Lewis followed the pottery tradition of her Pueblo: digging and preparing the clay, coiling the pots row by row smoothing as she went, scraping and smoothing the pot, covering it with white slip and painting the designs with a yucca brush. While trading posts favored designs such as flowers and birds, Lewis was drawn to the decorative work of the Anasazi pottery she found in sacred pots in the kivas and on shards on the ground. Unlike the clay of the eastern pueblos, Acoma clay is lighter in color, buff or cream, and ground shards rather than volcanic ash is added to the clay to increase its stability. While many potters used their own shards, Lewis used the old ones she found, grinding up some to add to the clay and saving others as inspiration for her designs. She developed what became her signature style of fine black lines on a white background, adjusting the lines to conform to the contours of the pot. Color was sometimes added as well, using slips and paints made from clay and vegetal sources. It was not until she visited the New Mexico Museum of Anthropology in the late 1950’s that she saw complete Anasazi and Mimbres pottery rather than small shards and realized that the designs she had been making echoed those of her ancestors.

“Nobody famous ever came to Acoma,” Lewis once said1, so for many years she was not exposed to the influence of archaeologists, museum curators or collectors. Her work began to gain prominence in the 1950’s when she earned a blue ribbon at the Gallup Intertribal Ceremonial. Around the same time, collectors were becoming aware of the finer pottery being made by certain individuals and sought out their work, paying good prices. The potters responded with renewed pride in their work and some began signing their pieces. Other awards followed the first and of the Museum of New Mexico championed her work. Exhibitions of her work in New York City and other locations extended her fame. In addition she taught for 17 summers at the Idyllwild School of Music and Arts in California. The popularity of her work brought collectors to the Acoma Pueblo as well, helping the other potters and bringing attention to their art.

Lewis’s long life was spent close by the place of her birth, her fame never changing her essential character. Six of her nine children also became potters, each steeped in their mother’s traditional teachings but each developing his own original ideas. She received many awards over her career including from the American Crafts Council, the College Art Association and the State of New Mexico. She was also honored by the Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts and The Women’s Caucus for the Arts, the latter award presented in 1992 shortly before her death. Lewis is considered to be the last of the Acoma matriarchs and a member of the pantheon of Native American artists which includes Maria Martinez. She is credited for reviving the ancient traditions of pueblo pottery and setting the standard of classic Acoma pottery with her exquisite thin-walled pots and their fine geometric designs. Her work is included in the collections of the , Princeton University, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, the Northwood Institute in Houston, and the Museum of New Mexico among others.

1. “Lucy Martin Lewis.” National Museum of Women in the Arts. http://www.nmwa.org/collection/profile.asp?LinkID=543

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY – LUCY LEWIS

Books and Catalogs

Albers, Anni, Sam Maloof et al. American Craft Council Gold Medal Recipients 1975-1993. Racine, WI: Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, 1993.

Collins, John E. A Tribute to Lucy M. Lewis, Acoma Potter. Fullerton, CA: Museum of North Orange County, 1975.

Dillingham, Rick. Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994.

Dillingham, Rick, and Melinda Elliott. Acoma and Laguna Pottery. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research, 1992.

International Native Arts and Crafts. Reno, NV: Impart Publishers, 1976.

Juettner, Bonnie. 100 Native Americans who Changed History. Milwaukee, WI: World Almanac Library, 2006, 2005.

Manley, Ray, and Charlotte Cardon. Ray Manley’s Southwestern Indian Arts & Crafts. Tucson, AZ: Ray Manley Photography, 1975.

Peterson, Susan. Lucy Lewis: American Indian Potter. 2nd Rev. Ed. Tokyo, Japan: Kodansha International, 2004.

______. Master Pueblo Potters. New York: ACA Gallery, 1980.

______. Pottery by American Indian Women. New York: Abbeville Press, 1997.

Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery. Albuquerque: Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of new Mexico Press, 1974.

Tanner, Clara Lee. Southwest Indian Craft Arts. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1968.

Vincentelli, Moira. Women Potters: Transforming Traditions. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004.

Wade, Edwin L. The Arts of the North American Indian. Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 1986.

Periodicals

“American Craft Council Gold Medalists.” American Craft 53 (August/September 1993): 106- 119.

Dillingham, Rick. “Nine Southwestern Indian Potters.” Studio Potter 6 no. 1 (1976.)

______. “The Pottery of Acoma Pueblo.” American Indian Art 2 no. 4 (1983).

Fauntleroy, Gussie. “Great Women Potters of the Past.” Native Peoples 14 no. 6 (September/October 2001): 26-27.

Herzog, Melanie. “Pueblo Pottery: Continuity and Change, Lucy Lewis.” School Arts 90 no. 5 (January 1991): 23-26.

Howard, Richard M. “Lucy M. Lewis, American Indian Potter.” American Indian Art Magazine 10 (Autumn 1985): 65-68.

Irvine, Cyndee. “Lucy Lewis and the Goddess of Fire.” Craft International 6 (April/June 1987): 26.

Levin, Elaine. “Women in Clay.” Ceramic Review no. 91 (January/February 1985): 30-33.

Luger, Sue. “Women in Clay.” Ceramics Monthly 32 (November 1984): 48-50.

“Obituary.” Ceramics Monthly 40 (September 1992): 14+.

Oleman, Minnie. “Lucy Lewis: Acoma’s Versatile Potter.” El Palacio 75 no. 2 (1968).

Peterson, Susan. “Matriarchs of Pueblo Pottery.” Portfolio (November/December 1980.)

______. “Obituary.” American Craft 52 (June/July 1992): 16.

______. “Remembering Two Great American Potters: Lucy Lewis and Maria Martinez.” Studio Potter 23 (December 1994): 41-64.

Pontello, Jacqueline M. “Obituary.” Southwest Art 22 (June 1992): 22.

“Portrait of Lucy Lewis (1897).” The Burlington Magazine 113 (april 1971): lviii.

Video and Other Media

“Four Women in Clay.” Ames, IA: Octagon Center for the Arts, 1984. VHS

“Lucy Lewis, Emma Lewis Mitchell, Delores Lewis Garcia, Daughters of the Anasazi.” Albuquerque, NM: Film Project, 1990. VHS

Snider, Bill, Deann Snider, et al. “With Hand and Heart, a Portrait of Southwestern Native American Artists.” Glenview, IL: Crystal Productions, 2006, 1986. DVD

GALLERY REPRESENTATION – LUCY LEWIS

Secondary market

WEB SITES – LUCY LEWIS http://www.clayhound.us/gallery/48.htm Biographical material, photos http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/8aa/8aa108.htm “Pueblo Clay, America’s First Pottery.” Exhibition at the American Museum of , May 17-July 12 2008. Essay. http://www.adobegallery.com/artist.php?artist_id=134 Biographical information on Lucy Lewis from Adobe Gallery http://www.nmwa.org/collection/profile.asp?LinkID=543 National Museum of Women in the Arts information on Lewis http://www.ceramicstoday.com/articles/lewis.htm Article on Lucy Lewis

August 2009