Julian Martinez

1879 San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico - 1943 San Ildefonso Pueblo

BiographyJulian Martinez, also known as Pocano, was born at San Ildefonso Pueblo, around 1879. His paintings were used by Mary Jane Colter in La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe and he was commissioned for murals including at the Santa Fe Indian School and Mesa Verde National Park.

Julian worked as a janitor at the Museum of New Mexico, where he would study the pottery on display for ideas for his designs. He also worked as a farmer and served as Governor of San Ildefonso Pueblo.

Although he created many paintings, he is best known for his collaborations in pottery with his wife, Maria Martinez. Maria would sculpt and polish the pots and Julian would paint and fire them. They originally started making traditional polychrome wares. Around 1908, Dr. Edgar Lee Hewitt, an archaeologist and director of the Museum of New Mexico, brought examples of broken pottery pieces from an excavation of ancient Puebloan sites near San Ildefonso to Maria to create full scale examples for the museum. This collaboration inspired the designs of many of Maria and Julian’s pottery. He frequently used smooth, geometric shapes and stylized forms of birds and serpents.

In 1919, Julian worked out the process of creating matte black-on-black style and by around the late 1920s Maria and Julian began to phase out their polychrome pottery in favor of the matte black-on-black style.

During their partnership, Maria and Julian travelled to demonstrate their techniques around the country, including the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, the 1914 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, and the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair. Julian died in 1943.

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