STELLA SHUTIVA
(Acoma Pueblo, 1939 – 1997)
Stella Shutiva of Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico was a potter of great re-known who specialized in recreating the corrugated wares of prehistoric times. Her mother, noted potter Jessie Garcia, is credited with reviving the corrugated ware, and inspiring Stella to continue in her tradition. Some of the subject matter in her signature style consisted of polychrome jars, bowls, double vases, wedding vases, canteens, plates, human figures, white corrugated owls, and animal figures. In the early 1970’s, Stella popularized the so-called ‘fingernail’ physical feature of the white clay pottery. She became famous for the delicate wedding vases, seed jars and bowls.
After Stella passed away, in 1997, her husband Ernest Shutiva, gave her tools to their daughter, Jackie Shutiva-Histia who carries on the tradition. Her son-in law, Wilfred Garcia, produces superbly polished white clay seed jars and bowls with three-dimensional reliefs of turtles, lizards and other animals.
For almost two thousand years, the pottery made by the Indians of America's Southwest has remained a vital art. Today, more than twenty Pueblos and tribes make pottery within the tradition, each with a distinctive style. Many of those local styles have persisted for hundreds of years. In prehistory, beautiful pieces had high trade value, and the finest contemporary piece commands prices appropriate to fine art of any type. The pottery-making tradition of Acoma Pueblo is one of the most significant among the surviving pueblos of the American Southwest, and the craft continues to be important and profitable there today. Pottery made at Acoma has evolved considerably in form and decoration over the last seven centuries. The work of Stella Shutiva is a classic example of this evolution.
Acoma pueblo is fifty miles west of Albuquerque and near Enchanted Mesa. Acoma potters are blessed with one of the finest natural clay sources and when it is mixed with a crushed potsherd temper it produces a very thin walled and light weight pottery. This thin walled construction had been another trademark for Stella.
In 1973, Stella demonstrated pottery making at the Smithsonian Institution where she studied its collection of Acoma pottery with "the goal of combining a feeling of the past with contemporary designs." (Southern Pueblo Pottery: 2,000 Artist Biographies by Greg Schaff).
COLLECTIONS:
…National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.
…Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
…Albuquerque museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
PUBLICATIONS:
…1973, 1974 SWAIA Quarterly
…1976 American Indian Art Magazine
