Maximiliana Montoya

San Ildefonso Pueblo

Maximiliana "Anna" Montoya was Maria Martinez eldest sister. Born in 1885, she passed on in 1955.

Like Maria, Anna learned the traditional way to make pottery at an early age. She worked with Maria often over the years, making pots, polishing them and painting them. Maria was heard to comment often about other well-known potters wanting Anna to paint for them, too.

Anna usually made black-on-black pottery but she developed different forms and designs than what Maria and Julian were making. Her husband, Crescencio Martinez, was one of the founders of the San Ildefonso School of watercolor art. They were both encouraged and supported by Dr. Edgar L. Hewitt of the Museum of New Mexico.

Anna was a participant with Tonita Roybal, Ramona Gonzales and Anna's sisters Maria and Desideria in a ground-breaking pottery making demonstration at the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe in 1909.

In the 1930s, the same women were being promoted at the top galleries in New York by painter John Sloan and writer Oliver LaFarge. An exhibit was designed, a catalog printed and New York art circles became new patrons of Pueblo Indian arts.