Aguilar Family

The Aguilar Family refers to a group of Native American potters from Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico, a community now commonly known as Kewa Pueblo. The group consisted of sisters Felipita Aguilar Garcia and Asuncion Aguilar Cate, together with their sister-in-law, Mrs. Ramos Aguilar. Their collaborative work became known as Aguilar pottery, and the artists are also sometimes described collectively as the Aguilar Sisters. The family’s importance lies in its role in the revival of Santo Domingo pottery during the early 1900s. By around 1910, pottery production at Santo Domingo Pueblo had declined substantially. Julius Seligman, who worked near the pueblo for the Bernalillo Mercantile Company, noticed the corresponding decline in sales and suggested that the Aguilar women work together to restore the local tradition. Their collaboration produced traditional polychrome ollas, jars, and dough bowls, while also establishing a distinctive decorative vocabulary that became closely identified with their name. The Aguilar potters used several approaches, including black-on-cream and black-on-red decoration. They are particularly associated with a bold geometric style in which black, or black and red, paint covered much of a cream-colored slip. This treatment differed from the more common Santo Domingo practice of leaving portions of the background unpainted. Art historians and collectors have subsequently referred to the approach as “negative boldface” or reverse-painted Aguilar pottery. The style gave the family’s work a strong visual identity within the wider history of Pueblo ceramics. The original Aguilar style appears to have ended around 1915, although the family’s work continued to influence the appreciation and development of Santo Domingo pottery. In later years, the Aguilar polychrome approach was revived by Robert Tenorio, a leading potter of Kewa Pueblo. This revival helped maintain the visibility of the style as a living artistic tradition rather than treating it solely as a historical form. Aguilar pottery is represented in permanent collections at institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Denver Art Museum. The family’s work is therefore significant both as a body of Pueblo pottery and as an example of collaborative Indigenous artistic production. It is best understood as a historical family-associated pottery tradition rather than as a continuously operating commercial brand.

The Aguilar Family was a group of potters from Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico, consisting of sisters Felipita Aguilar Garcia and Asuncion Aguilar Cate and their sister-in-law, Mrs. Ramos Aguilar. The family’s work is also referred to as Aguilar pottery or, less formally, the Aguilar Sisters. At the beginning of the twentieth century, pottery production at Santo Domingo Pueblo was experiencing a major decline. In 1910, Julius Seligman of the Bernalillo Mercantile Company observed that sales had fallen and suggested that the Aguilar women collaborate to help revive the local craft. The three artists began producing pottery together, creating a body of work that became influential in the history of Santo Domingo ceramics. Their production included traditional polychrome ollas, jars, and dough bowls. They employed several established Pueblo techniques, including black-on-cream and black-on-red painting, but became especially known for a forceful geometric style. In this approach, dark geometric decoration covered most of the cream-colored slip, leaving comparatively little of the ground visible. The treatment contrasted with more typical Santo Domingo geometric pottery, in which larger areas of the unpainted background remained open. The Aguilar approach is now commonly described as negative boldface or reverse-painted Aguilar pottery. The family’s period of joint production and the specific style associated with it ended around 1915. Even so, the pottery remained important to collectors, museums, and later Pueblo artists. Robert Tenorio, identified as one of Kewa Pueblo’s leading potters, later revived the Aguilar polychrome style, contributing to its continuation within contemporary Pueblo pottery. Individual works made by the Aguilar women, as well as pieces attributed to the family collectively, entered permanent museum collections. Institutions associated with the work include the Brooklyn Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Denver Art Museum. The Aguilar Family is consequently remembered both for artistic innovation and for helping restore a declining local pottery tradition. Because the original collaboration ended in the 1910s, the name describes a historical artistic family and pottery style rather than an active incorporated business.

• 1915

  Original Aguilar style ends

  [1]Aguilar Familyen.wikipedia.org

  The pottery style associated with the original Aguilar collaboration ceased around this time, although its influence continued through museum collections and later Pueblo potters.

• 1910

  Revival initiative begins

  [1]Aguilar Familyen.wikipedia.org

  After observing declining pottery sales at Santo Domingo Pueblo, Julius Seligman of the Bernalillo Mercantile Company encouraged Felipita Aguilar Garcia, Asuncion Aguilar Cate, and Mrs. Ramos Aguilar to collaborate in reviving the local pottery tradition.

• Aguilar polychrome style revived

  [1]Aguilar Familyen.wikipedia.org

  Kewa Pueblo potter Robert Tenorio later revived the Aguilar polychrome approach, helping preserve the style as part of the community’s continuing pottery tradition.

A historically significant Kewa Pueblo pottery tradition recognized for bold geometric, reverse-painted polychrome decoration and its role in the early twentieth-century revival of Santo Domingo ceramics.

• Pueblo pottery

  Polychrome ollas

  Traditional rounded Pueblo vessels made in polychrome forms and decorated with geometric painted designs. Aguilar examples are associated particularly with strong dark decoration applied over a cream-colored slip.

• Pueblo pottery

  Jars

  Decorated ceramic jars produced within the family’s broader Santo Domingo pottery practice. The surviving work may use black-on-cream, black-on-red, or the more heavily covered reverse-painted geometric treatment associated with Aguilar pottery.

• Pueblo pottery

  Dough bowls

  Traditional Pueblo ceramic bowls used for preparing dough and other household purposes. Aguilar examples form part of the family’s documented production alongside ollas and jars.

• Decorative pottery style

  Negative boldface polychrome pottery

  The family’s best-known decorative style uses bold geometric patterns in black, or black and red, over a cream-colored slip. Because the paint can obscure most of the ground, the method is also called reverse-painted Aguilar pottery.

1. 1Aguilar Familyen.wikipedia.org