J. Chino Acoma Pueblo Pottery Jar — Geometric, 1988

A hand-painted Acoma Pueblo storage jar signed J. CHINO / ACOMA N.M / -1988- on the base, executed in the polychrome tradition that runs alongside — and in direct dialogue with — the fine-line black-on-white heritage the Chino family helped revive. The form is the classic Acoma olla: wide-shouldered, maximum girth well below center, narrowing to a flat-trimmed collar. At nearly 10½ inches across, this is a display-scale piece, not a demonstration item.

The decoration is organized as three distinct horizontal registers, each with its own ground, density, and visual role. The upper shoulder — the dominant zone — carries dense black geometric forms across a terracotta-orange ground: elongated triangular bodies with interior hatching representing rain, diagonal sweep lines suggesting lightning or feathers, and double-dot accents signifying raindrops. The forms overlap and interlock so thoroughly that figure and ground exchange roles depending on where the eye settles. A wide equatorial band interrupts in white kaolin slip — the only zone in the traditional black-on-white register — filled with interlocking diamond lozenges and tight crosshatch fine-line work that references the Chino family's most celebrated technical tradition. Below that band, the proportion inverts: a heavy black field takes over, with the orange clay reading as figure rather than ground, anchoring the composition with kiva-step and arrow motifs. The orange bands at the collar and base are not incidental — in Acoma design vocabulary, they represent the sun. The full composition reads as a coherent cosmological statement: sky and water above, earth below, with the white band as the threshold between them. Executed freehand with a yucca brush over a large curved surface, with no visible hesitation or line variation across any zone, the technical control here is well above average Acoma commercial work of the period.

CONDITION Good. No cracks, chips, or repairs present. Minor shelf wear to the base consistent with display use; painted surfaces across all three decorative zones remain clean and intact.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Height: 9"
• Diameter (widest point): 10½"
• Form: Globular storage jar (olla), flat-trimmed rim, unglazed terracotta base
• Decoration: Hand-painted polychrome — black-on-orange and black-on-white
• Signature: J. CHINO / ACOMA N.M / -1988- (painted to base)
• Campbell's Soup Can (4" H) Shown for Scale