Christine McHorse

Christine McHorse (December 21, 1948 – February 17, 2021), also known as Christine Nofchissey McHorse, was a Navajo ceramic artist from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Early life and education Born Christine Nofchissey on December 21, 1949, in Morenci, Arizona, she was the fifth of nine children of Mark and Ethel Yazzie Nofchissey. McHorse lived off-reservation in her childhood but spent summers in Fluted Rock, Arizona, herding sheep and learning about Navajo oral history from her grandmother, Zonith Bahe.

At age 14, McHorse was introduced to the works of Picasso, Gaudi and Matisse at her boarding school, and she said these artists "opened a whole new world to us" (referring to herself and older sisters who were also attending the school).

From 1963 to 1968, she studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, when it was a high school for the arts on the campus of the Santa Fe Indian School.

Archuleta inspired and instructed McHorse in using the shimmering micaceous clay that was common to the Taos area, and McHorse continued to use that clay in her work.

Personal life In 1969

Artwork and recognition McHorse's artwork draws inspiration from Navajo, Pueblo, and Anglo cultures. McHorse's pottery was created with a traditional coil-building method and she based her work on traditional Navajo designs and legends, influenced by the Pueblo artistry but her work is nontraditional in appearance. She preferred to do the firing in the traditional mode but used the electric kiln for pre-firing larger pieces, some up to two feet, to prevent the chance of breakage. Although commonly Navajo potters have applied boiled pinon-pine pitch to the surface of fired pots to make them waterproof, McHorse used the pitch to increase value contrast in her incised designs.

McHorse exhibited at Santa Fe Indian Market for 23 years, winning 38 awards for both pottery and sculpture. 2006: SFIM Challenge Award 2013–2017: Dark Light: The Ceramics of Christine Nofchissey McHorse, traveling exhibition organized by the CFile Foundation, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (2013), Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (2014), Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art (2014), Navajo Nation Museum, Rockwell Museum of Western Art, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (2015), Arizona State Museum (2016), National Museum of the American Indian (2017)

Group exhibitions 1972: Taos Pueblo Arts and Crafts Shop, New Mexico (through 1977)

Public collections Denver Museum of Natural History, Colorado Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, Santa Fe, New Mexico Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock, Arizona School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe