Las Hermanas Aguilar - folk art Grand Masters

How better to celebrate the beginning of the Mexican Pottery section here on CW than with strippers and hookers?

The four Aguilar sisters, Guillermina, Josefina, Irene, and Concepcion have carried on with pottery craft begun by their parents in rural Ocotlon de Morelos in the State of Oaxaca. They are most noted for their figural pieces made of painted red clay. The best known of the four, Guillermina and Irene, have been named "Grand Masters of Mexican Folk Art" by the Mexican Cultural Commission (Fomento Cultural Banamex).

The Aguilar Sisters create many sorts of items - dolls and bells, Day of the Dead figures, Tree of Life sculptures - but are possibly best known for their figures of women. There are women engaged in all manners of everyday activity from professional to domestic. All four sisters have always included these ladies of the border town bars as part of their repertoire.

The four figures in the first two pictures are all signed by Guillermina. They vary in height from 10.5" to 13.5". The two "ladies of the night" are smaller at 7" and 7.5". They are both signed by Concepcion.