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02-13-2007, 02:43 PM
Museum of Fine Arts Creates "How the West is One" Exhibit
Reinterpretation of Collection Places Art in Historical Context
Santa Fe, NM- The New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts new "How the West Is One: The Art of New Mexico" exhibit organizes key objects from the museum's collections so that they outline an intercultural history of New Mexico art, from the arrival of railroads in 1879 to the present day.
<img src=http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/NMMFA_274_23P.jpg align=left border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5>This long term exhibition presents 70 works by Native American, Hispanic, and European-American artists which illustrates the changing aesthetic ideals that have evolved within southwestern art over the last 125 years.
How the West Is One views New Mexico art as a holistic tradition that has been produced by important interactions between aesthetic perspectives.
Over the last few decades, historians have emphasized the fracturing of New Mexico art into competing ethnic, aesthetic, and conceptual groupings. This fractured history promoted the idea of three separate cultures in New Mexico, and implied that little interaction had occurred between these differing aesthetic perspectives. The one-ness of New Mexico art is the unique, unpredictable, often contradictory unity that developed from cultural interactions among people from various ethnic backgrounds living in New Mexico.
The core of the exhibition focuses on the most popular works from the early twentieth century: Gerald Cassidy's Cui Bono?, Marsden Hartley's El Santo, and John Sloan's Ancestral Spirits. In the past, these classic works from the collection created a misimpression that New Mexico art was only made by European American artists who only depicted the indigenous peoples of the Southwest, such as E. Irving Couse's Taos Pueblo-Moonlight.
<img src=http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/NMMFA_282_23P.jpg align=left border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5><img src=http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/NMMFA_2001_13_1.jpg align=right border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5>How the West is One shows the relationship between the development of modernist art in New Mexico and innovative works by Native American and Hispanic artists, such as Maria Martinez's invention of matte on black pottery, and José Dolores López'swood carving Expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
The museum's mid-century collections will be showcasing new acquisitions: Stuart Davis's New Mexico Peak, Jan Matulka's Pueblo Dancer, and Agnes Pelton's Awakening. Together with Georgia O'Keeffe's Red Hills and the Pedernal and Raymond Jonson's Suspension, these works describe the aesthetic tensions between earlier academic painters and the mid-century moderns.
T. C. Cannon's painting Washington Landscape with Peace Medal Indian exemplifies the cross cultural fusions that have occurred in New Mexico. Contemporary works like Teri Greeves' beaded tennis shoes Yee Tah-lee continue the combination of traditional and experimental perspectives.
How the West is One investigates the confusing, imprecise categories of art often dismissed as craft, folk art, illustration, journalism, and popular culture. Ray Martín Abeyta's painting Indios addresses this issue by presenting "Indians" from both the Americas and from India. The resulting painting points to the perplexing meaning of the term "Indian," as well as the contradictory notion of one people "discovering" another.
Marsha Bol, PhD, director of the Museum of Fine Arts says of the exhibition;"I know that New Mexicans and tourists alike have been longing to see the best of our permanent collection go on exhibit. Our staff has been striving to meet this expectation by creating a meaningful exhibition and catalog. I am delighted with the end result."
<img src=http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/NMMFA_2004_11_1.jpg align=center border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5>
The issues addressed in this exhibition are clarified in a 288 page catalog with 228 full color reproductions of New Mexico art. Joseph Traugott, PhD, wrote the essay for "How the West is One: The Art of New Mexico" and is the curator of the exhibition by the same name. Traugott is curator of twentieth century art at the Museum of Fine Arts.
The exhibition opens to the public on April 20, 2007 and will be on permanent display. The opening will be hosted by the Women's Board on April 20, 2007 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1917 as the Art Gallery of the Museum of New Mexico. Housed in a spectacular Pueblo Revival building designed by I. H. and William M. Rapp, it was based on their New Mexico building at the Panama-California Exposition (1915). The museum's architecture inaugurated what has come to be known as "Santa Fe Style." For more than 90 years, the Museum has collected and exhibited work by leading artists from New Mexico and elsewhere. This tradition continues today with a wide-array of exhibitions with work from the world's leading artists. The Museum of Fine Arts strives to bring the art of New Mexico to the world and the art of the world to New Mexico.
The Museum of Fine Arts is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
[ Editor's Notes:
Art Credits for art images appearing in this article include:
Top Left: B. J. O. Nordfeldt, Antelope Dance, 1919, oil on canvas, 41 1/4 x 50 1/2 in. Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, New Mexico. Museum Purchase with funds donated by the Archaeological Society & Friends of Southwestern Art, 1920<br>
Bottom Left: Gerald Cassidy, Cui Bono?, circa 1911, oil on canvas, 104 1/2 x 58 in. Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, New Mexico. Gift of the artist, 1915<br>
Top Right: T. C. Cannon, Washington Landscape with Peace Medal Indian, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 46 in. Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, New Mexico. Gift of Nancy and Richard Bloch, 2001<br>
Bottom Center: Ray Martin Abeyta, Indios, 2002, oil on linen, 37 x 54 in. Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, New Mexico. Gift of Ray Graham and the Artist, 2004
Special thanks to Steven Cantrell, Public Relations Rep for NMMFA for his assistance in completing this article.]
Reinterpretation of Collection Places Art in Historical Context
Santa Fe, NM- The New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts new "How the West Is One: The Art of New Mexico" exhibit organizes key objects from the museum's collections so that they outline an intercultural history of New Mexico art, from the arrival of railroads in 1879 to the present day.
<img src=http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/NMMFA_274_23P.jpg align=left border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5>This long term exhibition presents 70 works by Native American, Hispanic, and European-American artists which illustrates the changing aesthetic ideals that have evolved within southwestern art over the last 125 years.
How the West Is One views New Mexico art as a holistic tradition that has been produced by important interactions between aesthetic perspectives.
Over the last few decades, historians have emphasized the fracturing of New Mexico art into competing ethnic, aesthetic, and conceptual groupings. This fractured history promoted the idea of three separate cultures in New Mexico, and implied that little interaction had occurred between these differing aesthetic perspectives. The one-ness of New Mexico art is the unique, unpredictable, often contradictory unity that developed from cultural interactions among people from various ethnic backgrounds living in New Mexico.
The core of the exhibition focuses on the most popular works from the early twentieth century: Gerald Cassidy's Cui Bono?, Marsden Hartley's El Santo, and John Sloan's Ancestral Spirits. In the past, these classic works from the collection created a misimpression that New Mexico art was only made by European American artists who only depicted the indigenous peoples of the Southwest, such as E. Irving Couse's Taos Pueblo-Moonlight.
<img src=http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/NMMFA_282_23P.jpg align=left border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5><img src=http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/NMMFA_2001_13_1.jpg align=right border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5>How the West is One shows the relationship between the development of modernist art in New Mexico and innovative works by Native American and Hispanic artists, such as Maria Martinez's invention of matte on black pottery, and José Dolores López'swood carving Expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
The museum's mid-century collections will be showcasing new acquisitions: Stuart Davis's New Mexico Peak, Jan Matulka's Pueblo Dancer, and Agnes Pelton's Awakening. Together with Georgia O'Keeffe's Red Hills and the Pedernal and Raymond Jonson's Suspension, these works describe the aesthetic tensions between earlier academic painters and the mid-century moderns.
T. C. Cannon's painting Washington Landscape with Peace Medal Indian exemplifies the cross cultural fusions that have occurred in New Mexico. Contemporary works like Teri Greeves' beaded tennis shoes Yee Tah-lee continue the combination of traditional and experimental perspectives.
How the West is One investigates the confusing, imprecise categories of art often dismissed as craft, folk art, illustration, journalism, and popular culture. Ray Martín Abeyta's painting Indios addresses this issue by presenting "Indians" from both the Americas and from India. The resulting painting points to the perplexing meaning of the term "Indian," as well as the contradictory notion of one people "discovering" another.
Marsha Bol, PhD, director of the Museum of Fine Arts says of the exhibition;"I know that New Mexicans and tourists alike have been longing to see the best of our permanent collection go on exhibit. Our staff has been striving to meet this expectation by creating a meaningful exhibition and catalog. I am delighted with the end result."
<img src=http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/NMMFA_2004_11_1.jpg align=center border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5>
The issues addressed in this exhibition are clarified in a 288 page catalog with 228 full color reproductions of New Mexico art. Joseph Traugott, PhD, wrote the essay for "How the West is One: The Art of New Mexico" and is the curator of the exhibition by the same name. Traugott is curator of twentieth century art at the Museum of Fine Arts.
The exhibition opens to the public on April 20, 2007 and will be on permanent display. The opening will be hosted by the Women's Board on April 20, 2007 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1917 as the Art Gallery of the Museum of New Mexico. Housed in a spectacular Pueblo Revival building designed by I. H. and William M. Rapp, it was based on their New Mexico building at the Panama-California Exposition (1915). The museum's architecture inaugurated what has come to be known as "Santa Fe Style." For more than 90 years, the Museum has collected and exhibited work by leading artists from New Mexico and elsewhere. This tradition continues today with a wide-array of exhibitions with work from the world's leading artists. The Museum of Fine Arts strives to bring the art of New Mexico to the world and the art of the world to New Mexico.
The Museum of Fine Arts is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
[ Editor's Notes:
Art Credits for art images appearing in this article include:
Top Left: B. J. O. Nordfeldt, Antelope Dance, 1919, oil on canvas, 41 1/4 x 50 1/2 in. Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, New Mexico. Museum Purchase with funds donated by the Archaeological Society & Friends of Southwestern Art, 1920<br>
Bottom Left: Gerald Cassidy, Cui Bono?, circa 1911, oil on canvas, 104 1/2 x 58 in. Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, New Mexico. Gift of the artist, 1915<br>
Top Right: T. C. Cannon, Washington Landscape with Peace Medal Indian, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 46 in. Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, New Mexico. Gift of Nancy and Richard Bloch, 2001<br>
Bottom Center: Ray Martin Abeyta, Indios, 2002, oil on linen, 37 x 54 in. Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, New Mexico. Gift of Ray Graham and the Artist, 2004
Special thanks to Steven Cantrell, Public Relations Rep for NMMFA for his assistance in completing this article.]