Bernabe, the Mexican Pottery Collected Around the World
Artist snapshot: Bernabe family pottery
Why we love it: Bernabe pottery represents the finest technical craftmanship and the legacy of a multi-generational, family collaboration.
Bernabe’s magic: This is extremely high-quality, collectable pottery. The Bernabe family excels at traditional Mexican designs but also has their own unique, innovative styles of decoration and glazing.
Tucked into the narrow streets of Tonalá is the home of one of México’s most famous artisan families. Tonalá’s history as a pottery producing region dates back to pre-Hispanic times, but even here, the Bernabe showroom stands out as something special. In contrast to nearby storefronts cluttered with generic-looking pottery, each piece here, from the tiniest vase to the largest serving platter, is a work of art.
The Bernabe family has been using age-old techniques to create elegant pottery from hand-mixed red clay since the 19th century. Their work beautifully depicts traditional elements like long-necked birds, grazing deer and the shape-changing Nagual, but it’s the delicate white cross-hatching (petatillo) that their pottery is known for. This traditional painting technique was dying out when Jose Bernabe revived it.
José Bernabe, the patriarch of the family and driver of the modern business he built with his four sons, is world-famous. His work is featured in museums and has won many awards including the Galardon Angel Carranza of Mexico's National Ceramics Prize. Bernabe plates grace the tables of world leaders, and a photo of former U.S. President Obama at a Bernabe place-setting at the table of the Canadian Prime Minister is proudly on display in the showroom. When he died, the Mexican Government produced a glossy twelve-page homage to his career.
As children, each of his sons mastered a particular technique so that each made an essential contribution to every piece. “It was my father’s plan,” explains Daniel Bernabe, “that it would take all of us working together to make each piece of Bernabe pottery.”
Three of the Bernabe brothers are still living and continue to work together, each lending his special expertise (painting, molding, glazing, etc). They are keeping the legacy alive, teaching the art to their own children, and firing each piece in the giant wood-fired kiln their father used.
Visitors can request a tour of their workshop, located in an open courtyard behind the showroom. Ismael Bernabe and his brother Daniel welcomed us and explained their process which includes sun-drying the pieces before firing and painting them.
The workshop has the tranquil feel of a space unchanged for years, a place where work is done by hand and cannot be rushed. You can imagine these talented artisans as boys playing and learning from their master potter father here.
Although both Daniel and Ismael have won awards of their own, they focus on their father’s accomplishments and take joy in sharing the extensive library of articles and books in which he is featured. They deeply miss him and their brother.
“We still sign each piece with our father’s name,” Daniel explains. “His name represents all of us.”
You can visit Galeria Bernabe in Tonala at 29 Hidalgo Street.
