collection New Acquisitions:
Major Storyteller Figure By Helen Cordero Donated to the Heard BY DIANA F. PARDUE CHIEF CURATOR
In 1976, the Heard Museum held an important exhibition for the figurative ceramic artist Helen Cordero (Cochiti Pueblo, 1915-1994). When she created a pottery figure with children seated on its lap in 1964, Cordero sparked a resurgence in a pottery tradition that was Cochiti Pueblo potter Helen Cordero, standing at left, with Dr. Barbara Babcock at the far right. centuries old. She based the figure on her grandfather, Santiago Quintana, who work and formed a special friendship with her was was known as a gifted storyteller. With eyes closed and Dr. Barbara Babcock, Regents’ Professor of English mouth open, one could almost hear the stories being told and Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies at the as they looked at Cordero’s pottery figures. University of Arizona. In 1986, Dr. Babcock partnered with scholars Guy and Doris Monthan to write the The Heard’s exhibition was only one of several definitive book The Pueblo Storyteller. Dr. Babcock significant events in Cordero’s career. Her creative works lectured widely on the topic and published articles were widely covered by newspapers and magazines, and in American Indian Art Magazine, Journal of American one of her storytellers was featured on the cover of a Folklore and New Mexico Magazine and many other 1982 issue of National Geographic. Her figures caught the journals and books. attention of many, and as they grew in popularity, other potters began to make these “storytellers” in their own The Heard Museum presented another exhibition in styles or explore variations in figurative ceramics. 1988 titled Earth, Hands, Life: Southwestern Ceramic Figures, which explored the tradition of figurative One person who became keenly interested in Cordero’s ceramics from pre-contact through contemporary times.
36
EARTHSONG
