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Updating the Traditional
Tourism stimulated the transformation of Pueblo pottery from utilitarian household articles into non-functional works of art. Paintings and photographs, such as Henry Balink's painting Pueblo Pottery, which was in the Museum's inaugural exhibition in 1917, documented the process of molding, painting, and firing Pueblo pottery, as well as the selling of souvenirs to tourists.
Contemporary artists have reconfigured the traditional process of working with native clays. Rick Dillingham transformed the accidental breaking of a work during the firing into a conscious process where the piece isn't finished until it has been fired, broken, repainted, refired, and finally glued back together. Archaeologist Eric Blinman investigates prehistoric processes and considers his finished pieces to be "science," not "art." Tony Jojola, Pueblo potter, works with glass, the purest of form of ceramics. The now-classic polished matte-on-black pottery from San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico has inspired the Hispanic artist Lydia Quezada from the village of Mata Ortiz, in northern Chihuahua, Mexico.
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