Artist

Helen Cordero

born Cochiti Pueblo, NM 1915-died 1994
Media - portrait_image_113188.jpg - 90123
Also known as
  • Helen Quintano
  • Helen Quintana Cordero
  • Daiyrowsita
  • Helen Quintana
Born
Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico, United States
Active in
  • Bernalillo, New Mexico, United States
Biography

Helen Cordero is known for her "storyteller" figures from Cochiti folklore. Her work helped to revive interest in the craft in 1964 when she sold her experimental figures at the Santo Domingo feast-day market (Charles Rosenak, "The Storytellers," Indians of New Mexico, 1990). Cordero used clay found around her home and fired her pieces over an open cedar flame. She was inspired to create these figures by memories of her grandfather, a Cochiti storyteller who was "always surrounded by enraptured small children." (Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia, 1990)

Works by this artist (2 items)

Terry Winters, Novalis, 1983-1989, color etching, aquatint and spit bite on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1991.94.5, © 1989, Terry Winters
Novalis
Artist
Date1983-1989
color etching, aquatint and spit bite on paper
Not on view
Robert Rauschenberg, Treaty, 1974, color lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Kainen and museum purchase through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1975.98.3
Treaty
Artist
Date1974
color lithograph on paper
Not on view