Betty Manygoats (born 1945) is a Navajo artist known for her ceramic work. She lives and works at Cow Springs on the Navajo Nation in Arizona in the American Southwest.

Biography

Manygoats was born at Shoto/Cow Springs, on the Navajo Nation.^[1] She was born into the Tàchiiʼnii clan.^[2] She and her husband William Manygoats, whom she married in 1963, have ten children.^[2][3] Many of her grown children are also potters.^[3] She is also known as Betty Barlow.^[1]

Art work

Manygoats learned the art of silversmithing, weaving and beadwork when she was growing up.^[2] When she was in her twenties, she learned to make traditional functional pottery from her grandmother, Grace Barlow.^[1] As her work progressed, she developed a style that exaggerated the surface decoration, motifs, and shapes of traditional Navajo pottery.^[1] In the 1970s, Manygoats developed a style of working that incorporated the application of hand-built clay horned toads which became her trademark.^[3]

Collections

Manygoats' work is included in the collection of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.^[4] She is also represented in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian.^[4] and the William C. and Evelyn M. Davies Gallery of Southwest Indian Art at the Museum of Texas Tech University.

References