FILTER RESULTS × Close
Skip to Content
Showing 1 of 1


Grace Chapella (aka White Squash Blossom (Tsepela))

Native American
(1874–1980)

Jar
1945

Earthenware
10 x 14.375 x 14.375 in. (25.4 x 36.513 x 36.513 cm)
Gift of the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation
1985.2

Grace Chapella’s polychrome Jar exhibits the winged figures—or butterfly motif—for which she became well known. It was a decorative scheme she developed from pottery shards found near her home. Chapella drew upon a long tradition of Hopi vessel making, particularly the examples found at the Sikyatki Hopi archaeological site, east of First Mesa, dating from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. The designs and shards found during the excavation of Sikyatki in 1895 by the Smithsonian Institution inspired a revival of polychrome Hopi pottery.

Grace Chapella was a member of the Bear Clan of the Hopi-Tewa peoples. She learned traditional techniques from her mother TaTung Pawbe, and her neighbor, the famed Hopi-Tewa potter Nampeyo. Tourists traveling through the Southwest frequently commissioned pieces of her work—particularly salt and pepper shakers—to be used in commercial venues. Tom Polacca, the grandson of Nampeyo and brother to Fannie Nampeyo, encouraged Chapella to sign her work. After initial hesitation, she began doing so, making her one of the earliest Native American potters to consistently sign her work.

Matthew Limb


Keywords
Click a term to view the records with the same keyword
This object has the following keywords:

Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Also found in
Click a portfolio name to view all the objects in that portfolio
This object is a member of the following portfolios:


Your current search criteria is: Objects is "Jar".





This site facilitates access to the art and artifact collections by providing digitally searchable records for thousands objects. The information on these pages is not definitive or comprehensive. We are regularly adding artworks and updating research online. We welcome your comments.