Margaret and Luther Gutierrez

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Margaret Gutierrez (b. 1936) and Luther Gutierrez (1911-1987) were brother and sister Native American potters from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, United States. They continued the polychrome style of painting made famous by their parents Lela and Van Gutierrez. They learned the art from their parents and began making pottery together in the 1960s.

Margaret and Luther’s painted slips included color combinations not used by anyone else such as yellow-orange, celadon green, warm gray and a dark brown. Their first creations included polychrome bowls, jars and wedding vases with designs centered on the Avanyu (water serpent), rain, clouds and lightning and sky bands. In the 1970s they came up with their original idea of making polychrome caricatures of animals and other smaller figurines rather than the jars made famous by their parents. These were painted with the same slips and pigments used on earlier pieces.

Margaret and Luther participated in the Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery exhibition at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico in 1974, and the Popovi Da Studio of Indian Arts, gallery show in Santa Fe in 1976. In 1975 Margaret won first place for her painted wedding vase at the Santa Fe Indian Market.

After Luther died Margaret continued to make pottery with the assistance of Luther’s daughter Pauline but Pauline died shortly thereafter. Margaret now works with her great-niece Stephanie Naranjo.

Today the famous multicolored polychrome, a Gutierrez family tradition, is waning. Luther’s son Paul and his wife Dorothy are currently making little blackware mudhead figures and animalitos (small animals) in large quantities. Paul’s son Gary is also making blackware.