12 Facts About Popovi Da

Popovi Da was a San Ildefonso Pueblo Native American potter.

Popovi Da served six terms as Governor of San Ildefonso Pueblo beginning in 1952.

Popovi Da was born Antonio Martinez at San Ildefonso Pueblo in Northern New Mexico to noted potters Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez.

Popovi Da served in the Army during the Second World War as part of the Special Engineer Detachment.

Popovi Da gathered clay and made paints that were used for her pottery.

Popovi Da attended the Santa Fe Indian School, graduating in 1939, and later began collaborating with his mother.

Popovi Da specialized in painting the decorative motifs on her pottery.

Popovi Da worked at a time when it was not entirely culturally acceptable for men to make pottery, as their role at the time was to assist the women matriarchal potters.

Popovi Da began inlaying turquoise into his pots in the 1960s, and produced a series of works using scraffito and shallow carving to incise designs on the surfaces.

Popovi Da developed a technique of creating black and sienna ombre-like color fades by selectively shielding parts of his pots during the oxidation firing process.

Popovi Da served as the Chairman of the All Pueblo Council of Governors.

Popovi Da's work is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Seattle Art Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the McNay Art Museum, among others.