Mata Ortiz Pottery

The strikingly intricate and beautiful Mata Ortiz style of pottery is named for the town in the northern Mexico state of Chihuahua in which this pottery style was born. The roots of this relatively young art form are buried deep in the pre-Columbian Casas Grandes network of villages which thrived in what is now northern Mexico and the southern portions of New Mexico and Arizona from the 11th century to about 1350 AD. This culture’s main city, Paquimé, whose population vanished around the year 1400, was home to potters who created beautiful and functional ceramics whose smooth surfaces were decorated with animal figures and mazelike designs. The nearby Mimbres people, who inhabited the region from about 750 to 1150 AD, also created beautiful pottery featuring figurative and geometric designs. For more infromationClick Here.

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