biography of Julian MARTINEZ (1897-1943)

Birth place: San Ildefonso Pueblo, NM

Death place: New Mexico

Addresses: San Ildefonso Pueblo, Santa Fe, NM

Profession: Painter, ceramic artist, muralist

Studied: self-taught.

Exhibited: S. Indp. A., 1932, 1934-38; AIC,1935; watercolors/pottery, Inter-Tribal Arts Exh.; blackware pottery, with his wife, Marie, fairs in Santa Fe and Gallup, New Mexico (prizes); U.S. museums.

Work: Amon Carter Mus.; Denver Mus. Art; Mus. New Mexico; Mus. Am. Indian; paintings representing ceremonies and symbols of Pueblo Indians, U.S. Indian Sch., Santa Fe.

Comments: Among the first Rio Grande painters; decorator of pottery made by his wife, Mar"a Mart"nez (see entry). His black-on-black decorative ceramic method, perfected c.1919, brought extensive tourist business to the Pueblo. He excelled in painting geometrically stylized forms, particularly birds and snakes. The decorating was continued by his son Tony (Popovi Da) after Julian died.

Sources: WW40; P&H Samuels give birthdate as 1897 and an alternate deathdate of 1944, 306; Eldredge, et al., Art in New Mexico, 1900-1945, 202.

Legals