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WILLIAM ACHEFF

ARTIST BIO INQUIRE
 
When William Acheff painted his first centuries-old Pueblo pot shortly after arriving in Taos in 1973, he realized he could evoke the deep quiet he imagined earlier artists felt working in their time. Though the artist has no direct link to the Southwestern and Plains tribes whose artifacts he has collected and painted, he seeks to extend an appreciation for Native American traditions, human qualities of continuity, and a slower pace of life as well as what he calls, "the subtle relationships that are common to us all." Archeff was born in 1947 in Anchorage, Alaska, of Georgian, Russian, Scottish, Dutch, and Alaskan-Athabascan heritage. Classically trained in San Francisco, he continues to paint in this widely recognized, distinctive way, often blending artifacts and traditions of the past with contemporary items and settings. <br> <br>The bowl depicted in the present example is from San Juan, a pueblo rich in a tradition of creating pottery vessels for functional use. Though the early elegant shapes and beautiful curves ended by the 1900s, they were revived in the 1930s and 1940s when local women studied ancient pottery from the area as a basis for a bowl such as the one depicted here. Rather than "San Juan," the native people prefer the traditional name Ohkay Owingeh which means "Place of the Strong People."
When William Acheff painted his first centuries-old Pueblo pot shortly after arriving in Taos in 1973, he realized he could evoke the deep quiet he imagined earlier artists felt working in their time. Though the artist has no direct link to the Southwestern and Plains tribes whose artifacts he has collected and painted, he seeks to extend an appreciation for Native American traditions, human qualities of continuity, and a slower pace of life as well as what he calls, "the subtle relationships that are common to us all." Archeff was born in 1947 in Anchorage, Alaska, of Georgian, Russian, Scottish, Dutch, and Alaskan-Athabascan heritage. Classically trained in San Francisco, he continues to paint in this widely recognized, distinctive way, often blending artifacts and traditions of the past with contemporary items and settings. <br> <br>The bowl depicted in the present example is from San Juan, a pueblo rich in a tradition of creating pottery vessels for functional use. Though the early elegant shapes and beautiful curves ended by the 1900s, they were revived in the 1930s and 1940s when local women studied ancient pottery from the area as a basis for a bowl such as the one depicted here. Rather than "San Juan," the native people prefer the traditional name Ohkay Owingeh which means "Place of the Strong People." When William Acheff painted his first centuries-old Pueblo pot shortly after arriving in Taos in 1973, he realized he could evoke the deep quiet he imagined earlier artists felt working in their time. Though the artist has no direct link to the Southwestern and Plains tribes whose artifacts he has collected and painted, he seeks to extend an appreciation for Native American traditions, human qualities of continuity, and a slower pace of life as well as what he calls, "the subtle relationships that are common to us all." Archeff was born in 1947 in Anchorage, Alaska, of Georgian, Russian, Scottish, Dutch, and Alaskan-Athabascan heritage. Classically trained in San Francisco, he continues to paint in this widely recognized, distinctive way, often blending artifacts and traditions of the past with contemporary items and settings. <br> <br>The bowl depicted in the present example is from San Juan, a pueblo rich in a tradition of creating pottery vessels for functional use. Though the early elegant shapes and beautiful curves ended by the 1900s, they were revived in the 1930s and 1940s when local women studied ancient pottery from the area as a basis for a bowl such as the one depicted here. Rather than "San Juan," the native people prefer the traditional name Ohkay Owingeh which means "Place of the Strong People." When William Acheff painted his first centuries-old Pueblo pot shortly after arriving in Taos in 1973, he realized he could evoke the deep quiet he imagined earlier artists felt working in their time. Though the artist has no direct link to the Southwestern and Plains tribes whose artifacts he has collected and painted, he seeks to extend an appreciation for Native American traditions, human qualities of continuity, and a slower pace of life as well as what he calls, "the subtle relationships that are common to us all." Archeff was born in 1947 in Anchorage, Alaska, of Georgian, Russian, Scottish, Dutch, and Alaskan-Athabascan heritage. Classically trained in San Francisco, he continues to paint in this widely recognized, distinctive way, often blending artifacts and traditions of the past with contemporary items and settings. <br> <br>The bowl depicted in the present example is from San Juan, a pueblo rich in a tradition of creating pottery vessels for functional use. Though the early elegant shapes and beautiful curves ended by the 1900s, they were revived in the 1930s and 1940s when local women studied ancient pottery from the area as a basis for a bowl such as the one depicted here. Rather than "San Juan," the native people prefer the traditional name Ohkay Owingeh which means "Place of the Strong People." When William Acheff painted his first centuries-old Pueblo pot shortly after arriving in Taos in 1973, he realized he could evoke the deep quiet he imagined earlier artists felt working in their time. Though the artist has no direct link to the Southwestern and Plains tribes whose artifacts he has collected and painted, he seeks to extend an appreciation for Native American traditions, human qualities of continuity, and a slower pace of life as well as what he calls, "the subtle relationships that are common to us all." Archeff was born in 1947 in Anchorage, Alaska, of Georgian, Russian, Scottish, Dutch, and Alaskan-Athabascan heritage. Classically trained in San Francisco, he continues to paint in this widely recognized, distinctive way, often blending artifacts and traditions of the past with contemporary items and settings. <br> <br>The bowl depicted in the present example is from San Juan, a pueblo rich in a tradition of creating pottery vessels for functional use. Though the early elegant shapes and beautiful curves ended by the 1900s, they were revived in the 1930s and 1940s when local women studied ancient pottery from the area as a basis for a bowl such as the one depicted here. Rather than "San Juan," the native people prefer the traditional name Ohkay Owingeh which means "Place of the Strong People." When William Acheff painted his first centuries-old Pueblo pot shortly after arriving in Taos in 1973, he realized he could evoke the deep quiet he imagined earlier artists felt working in their time. Though the artist has no direct link to the Southwestern and Plains tribes whose artifacts he has collected and painted, he seeks to extend an appreciation for Native American traditions, human qualities of continuity, and a slower pace of life as well as what he calls, "the subtle relationships that are common to us all." Archeff was born in 1947 in Anchorage, Alaska, of Georgian, Russian, Scottish, Dutch, and Alaskan-Athabascan heritage. Classically trained in San Francisco, he continues to paint in this widely recognized, distinctive way, often blending artifacts and traditions of the past with contemporary items and settings. <br> <br>The bowl depicted in the present example is from San Juan, a pueblo rich in a tradition of creating pottery vessels for functional use. Though the early elegant shapes and beautiful curves ended by the 1900s, they were revived in the 1930s and 1940s when local women studied ancient pottery from the area as a basis for a bowl such as the one depicted here. Rather than "San Juan," the native people prefer the traditional name Ohkay Owingeh which means "Place of the Strong People." When William Acheff painted his first centuries-old Pueblo pot shortly after arriving in Taos in 1973, he realized he could evoke the deep quiet he imagined earlier artists felt working in their time. Though the artist has no direct link to the Southwestern and Plains tribes whose artifacts he has collected and painted, he seeks to extend an appreciation for Native American traditions, human qualities of continuity, and a slower pace of life as well as what he calls, "the subtle relationships that are common to us all." Archeff was born in 1947 in Anchorage, Alaska, of Georgian, Russian, Scottish, Dutch, and Alaskan-Athabascan heritage. Classically trained in San Francisco, he continues to paint in this widely recognized, distinctive way, often blending artifacts and traditions of the past with contemporary items and settings. <br> <br>The bowl depicted in the present example is from San Juan, a pueblo rich in a tradition of creating pottery vessels for functional use. Though the early elegant shapes and beautiful curves ended by the 1900s, they were revived in the 1930s and 1940s when local women studied ancient pottery from the area as a basis for a bowl such as the one depicted here. Rather than "San Juan," the native people prefer the traditional name Ohkay Owingeh which means "Place of the Strong People." When William Acheff painted his first centuries-old Pueblo pot shortly after arriving in Taos in 1973, he realized he could evoke the deep quiet he imagined earlier artists felt working in their time. Though the artist has no direct link to the Southwestern and Plains tribes whose artifacts he has collected and painted, he seeks to extend an appreciation for Native American traditions, human qualities of continuity, and a slower pace of life as well as what he calls, "the subtle relationships that are common to us all." Archeff was born in 1947 in Anchorage, Alaska, of Georgian, Russian, Scottish, Dutch, and Alaskan-Athabascan heritage. Classically trained in San Francisco, he continues to paint in this widely recognized, distinctive way, often blending artifacts and traditions of the past with contemporary items and settings. <br> <br>The bowl depicted in the present example is from San Juan, a pueblo rich in a tradition of creating pottery vessels for functional use. Though the early elegant shapes and beautiful curves ended by the 1900s, they were revived in the 1930s and 1940s when local women studied ancient pottery from the area as a basis for a bowl such as the one depicted here. Rather than "San Juan," the native people prefer the traditional name Ohkay Owingeh which means "Place of the Strong People."
San Juan Bowl19866 5/8 x 11 5/8 in.(16.83 x 29.53 cm) oil on panel
Provenance
Private Collection
When William Acheff painted his first centuries-old Pueblo pot shortly after arriving in Taos in 1973, he realized he could evoke the deep quiet he imagined earlier artists felt working in their time. Though the artist has no direct link to the Southwestern and Plains tribes whose artifacts he has collected and painted, he seeks to extend an appreciation for Native American traditions, human qualities of continuity, and a slower pace of life as well as what he calls, "the subtle relationships that are common to us all." Archeff was born in 1947 in Anchorage, Alaska, of Georgian, Russian, Scottish, Dutch, and Alaskan-Athabascan heritage. Classically trained in San Francisco, he continues to paint in this widely recognized, distinctive way, often blending artifacts and traditions of the past with contemporary items and settings.

The bowl depicted in the present example is from San Juan, a pueblo rich in a tradition of creating pottery vessels for functional use. Though the early elegant shapes and beautiful curves ended by the 1900s, they were revived in the 1930s and 1940s when local women studied ancient pottery from the area as a basis for a bowl such as the one depicted here. Rather than "San Juan," the native people prefer the traditional name Ohkay Owingeh which means "Place of the Strong People."
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