Dextra Quotskuyva

Dextra Quotskuyva Nampeyo (born September 7, 1928, Polacca, Arizona) is a Native American potter and artist. She is in the fifth generation of a distinguished ancestral line of Hopi potters.

Dextra Quotskuyva Nampeyo
Photo of Dextra Quotskuyva taken on September 20, 2018, in Kykotsmovi, Arizona.
Born (1928-09-07) September 7, 1928
Polacca, Arizona
NationalityAmerican
EducationGreat-granddaughter of Hopi–Tewa potter Nampeyo
Known forPotter and artist
AwardsProclaimed an "Arizona Living Treasure," 1994; Arizona State Museum Lifetime Achievement Award, 1998

In 1994 Dextra Quotskuyva was proclaimed an "Arizona Living Treasure," and in 1998 she received the first Arizona State Museum Lifetime Achievement Award.[1] In 2001, the Wheelwright Museum organized a 30-year retrospective exhibition of Quotskuyva's pottery,[2] and in 2004, she received the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Lifetime Achievement award.[3]

Family

She is the great-granddaughter of Hopi-Tewa potter Nampeyo of Hano, who revived Sikyátki style pottery,[1] descending through her eldest daughter, Annie Healing. Dextra is the daughter of Rachel Namingha (1903–1985), and sister of Priscilla Namingha, who are other notable Hopi-Tewa potters.[4] Her daughter, Hisi Nampeyo is also a potter, and her son, Dan Namingha, is painter and sculptor.[5] Her husband, Edwin Quotskuyva, was a veteran and a Hopi tribal leader.

Work

Dextra began her artistic career in 1967, following Nampeyo's rich heritage rooted in Sikyatki decorations.[3] At first, following the advice of her mother to stay true to the old styles, Dextra's design repertoire was limited to traditional Nampeyo migration and bird designs. After her mother died in 1985, Dextra felt at greater liberty to express her personal creativity. She was the first Nampeyo potter to produce a commodity for public consumption.[6]

Quotskuyva experiments with the traditional materials usually used for pottery, gathering clay from different sources from her reservation and creating variations on the characteristic orange, tan, and brown hues of Hopi bonfire pots.[7] For the decorations, she uses bee-weed plant for the black and native clay slips for the red.[8]

In describing her way of creating pottery, she said: "One day my pottery calls for me, and then I know this is the day I must do it".[7]

Noted American Indian art dealer and collector, Martha Hopkins Lanman Struever, authored a book about Dextra entitled "Painted Perfection", exploring a collection of her works which were exhibited at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian.[9]

See also

Selected public collections

References
  1. Dextra Quotskuyva at Holmes Museum of Anthropology
  2. "Painted Perfection: The Pottery of Dextra Quotskuyva". Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. 2001. Archived from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  3. "SWAIA Announces 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award Winners". ICT. 2 June 2004. Archived from the original on 5 February 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  4. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology (1978). Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery (6th ed.). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. p. 18. ISBN 0826303889 – via Internet Archive.
  5. "Dan and Arlo Namingha - A Fascination with Dualities". Museum of Northern Arizona. 2007. Archived from the original on 5 February 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  6. Dittemore, Diane (August 2001). "The Nampeyo Legacy: A Family of Hopi-Tewa Potters". Southwest Art. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  7. Susan., Peterson; D.C.), National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington (1998-01-01). Pottery by American Indian women : the legacy of generations ; [exhibition itinerary: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., October 9, 1997 – January 11, 1998 ; The Heard Museum, Phoenix, February 18, 1998 – April 18, 1998]. Abbeville Press. ISBN 0789203537. OCLC 614021872.
  8. "Dextra Quotskuyva Nampeyo". King Galleries. Archived from the original on 15 August 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  9. Struever, Martha Hopkins (2001). Jonathan Batkin (ed.). Painted Perfection: The Pottery of Dextra Quotskuyva. Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico. pp. 1–123. Retrieved October 23, 2021.
  10. "hopi2002-4-24". www.holmes.anthropology.museum. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  11. "Awatovi Birds, 1990 - Dextra Quotskuyva". Minneapolis Institute of Art. Archived from the original on 5 November 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  12. "Jar – Dextra Nampeyo (Quotskuyva)". The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 9 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  13. "Jar – Dextra Nampeyo (Quotskuyva)". The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 9 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  14. "National Museum of the American Indian : Item Detail". www.nmai.si.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  15. "Seed jar - circa 1980 by Dextra Quotskuyva". National Museum of the American Indian. Smithsonian. Archived from the original on 9 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  16. Gallery Family Guide: Beyond Expressions in Clay - William C. and Evelyn M. Davies Gallery of Southwest Indian Art (PDF). Museum of Texas Tech University. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 February 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2023.

Pecina, Ron and Pecina, Bob. Hopi Kachinas: History, Legends, and Art. Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2013. ISBN 978-0-7643-4429-9; p. 161

Further reading
  • Dillingham, Rick – Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery. 1994.
  • Peterson, Susan – Pottery of American Indian Women: The Legacy of Generations. 1997.
  • Schaaf, Gregory – Hopi-Tewa Pottery: 500 Artist Biographies. 1998.
  • Blair, Mary Ellen; Blair, Laurence R. (1999). The Legacy of a Master Potter: Nampeyo and Her Descendants. Tucson: Treasure Chest Books. ISBN 1887896066. OCLC 41666705.
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