Alice Cling

Alice Williams Cling (Navajo, born March 21, 1946) is a Native American ceramist and potter known for creating beautiful and innovative pottery that has a distinctive rich reds, purples, browns and blacks that have a polished and shiny exteriors, revolutionizing the functional to works of art. Critics have argued that she is the most important Navajo potter of the last 25 years.

Early life

Cling was born in Cow Springs, Arizona, in the Tonalea area of the Navajo Nation.

In 1966, Cling graduated from the Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City, Utah.

Career

Cling learned the craft of pottery from her mother, Rose Williams, and her great-aunt, Grace Barlow. The pots are created from clay found near the Black Mesa area in Apache-Navajo Counties in Arizona, and are then fired outdoors using juniper wood, with the firing process enhancing the clay's natural pigments. Cling and her mother and aunt were responsible for revitalizing traditional Navajo pottery.

Cling is a coil potter, and was the first Navajo potter to use a smooth river stone to polish her pots instead of the traditional corncob. Her pottery is considered non-utilitarian, which represented a huge shift from function to art.

In 1978, Cling's work was selected by Joan Mondale and featured in the vice-presidential mansion in Washington, D.C. and she was honored with the Arizona Indian Living Treasures Award in 2006. Cling's work is in the collection of the Smithsonian.

Personal life

Cling learned her pottery skills from her mother, master potter Rose Williams. She lived across the highway from her mother in Shonto, Arizona. Following in the family tradition, Cling's daughters are also artists, as are her sisters, Sue Ann Williams, and Susie Williams Crank.

Cling married Jervis "Jerry" Cling shortly after graduating from high school. They had four children. She works and lives in the Shonto-Cow Springs area in Arizona.

Collections

• Amerind Foundation, Dragoon, AZ
• Arizona State Museum, Tempe, AZ
• Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ
• Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM
• Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
• Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS

Awards

• 2006: Arizona Indian Living Treasures Award

Selected works

• Wedding Vase with Braided Handles at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1987
• Pot with Incised Geometric Decoration at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1988

References

Further reading

• Bataille, Gretchen M; Lisa, Laurie (2005). Native American women: a biographical dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-95587-8.
• Rosenak, Chuck; Rosenak, Jan (1998). Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists. New York: Abbeville. ISBN 978-1-55859-041-0.
• Swisher, Karen Gayton; Benally, AnCita (1998). Native North American firsts. Detroit, Mich.; London: Gale. ISBN 978-0-7876-0518-6.
• Laffal, Florence; Laffal, Julius (2013). American self-taught art: an illustrated analysis of 20th century artists and trends with 1,319 capsule biographies. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. ISBN 978-0-7864-7519-3.
• Ressler, Susan R (2011). Women artists of the american west. Jefferson: Mcfarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-6438-8.
• Makov, Susan; Eddington, Patrick (1997). Trading post guidebook: where to find the trading posts, galleries, auctions, artists, and museums of the Four Corners region. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Pub. ISBN 978-0-87358-612-2.
• Rosenak, Chuck; Rosenak, Jan; Rosenak, Chuck (1998). Navajo folk art: the people speak. Flagstaff, Ariz.: Northland Pub. ISBN 9780873586931. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
• Hartman, Russell P (1989). Navajo pottery. Traditions and innovations. Flagstaff: Northland Publ. ISBN 978-0-87358-430-2.
• Iverson, Peter; Roessel, Monty (2003). Diné a history of the Navajos. Albuquerque [N.M.: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-2715-4.
• Hartman, Russell P.; Tanner, Clara Lee (introduction by); Trimble, Stephen (photographs by) (1987). "Chapter 6. Revitalization of Navajo Pottery and Chapter 7. Contemporary Pitch-Coated Navajo Pottery". In Musial, Jan (ed.). Navajo Pottery: Traditions & Innovations. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Press. ISBN 978-0-873-58430-2. OCLC 16518200.
• Laffal, Florence; Laffal, Julius (2003). American Self-Taught Art: An Illustrated Analysis of 20th Century Artists and Trends with 1,319 Capsule Biographies. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. ISBN 978-0-786-41669-1. OCLC 52602764.
• Peterson, Susan (1997). Pottery by American Indian Women: The Legacy of Generations (Exhibition catalog). New York, NY: Abbeville Press. pp. 166–167. ISBN 978-0-789-20353-3. OCLC 36648903. – Published in conjunction with an exhibition held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Oct. 9, 1997-Jan. 11, 1998 and at the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Feb. 18-Apr. 18, 1998
• Wright, H. Diane; Bell, Jan (1987). "Potters and their work". Plateau. 58 (2). Flagstaff, AZ: Museum of Northern Arizona: 24–31. OCLC 15686775.
• Wright, H. Diane (1987). "Navajo Pottery: Contemporary Trends in a Traditional Craft". American Indian Art. 12 (2): 26–35.
• "Alice Cling". The Clarion. 13. New York, NY: Museum of American Folk Art: 36–37. 1988. ISSN 0197-6850. OCLC 4279936.

External links

• Alice Cling at Women Artists of the American West, Purdue University
• Alice Cling at Smithsonian American Art Museum