The Dr. Samuel R. Poliakoff Collection of Western Art

Ada Suina has always been recognized as one of the premier makers of storyteller figurines. Human figures have long been fashioned from clay by Cochiti potters. But beginning in the 1970s a popular new genre depicting storytellers and children grew in popularity. Suina’s storytellers are intimate portraits and filled with personality. The mother or grandmother is dressed in her finest clothes, her head raised either remembering the story or perhaps singing. Meanwhile, nine children raptly listen–some sit quietly, others clamor over one another to be closer.