With Modernism Exhibitions
Showing Modernists
Experience the Culture
New Mexico Museum of Art
Location and Web Address
107 W. Palace Ave.
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505.476.5072
www.nmartmuseum.org
The New Mexico Museum of Art building on the Santa Fe Plaza dates only to 1917, but its architects looked to the past, and based the design on the 300 year-old mission churches at Acoma and other pueblos.
It shares the graceful simplicity of pueblo architecture and the sense of being created from the earth. In turn, the building established the Pueblo Spanish Revival style of architecture, for which Santa Fe is known.
It was built to become the art gallery of the Museum of New Mexico, which had been founded in 1909 by archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett. He had begun holding art shows in the historic Palace of the Governors, then realized that an art gallery would be needed to effectively promote art throughout the region.
Upcoming Exhibitions
O’Keeffe in Process
September 11, 2015 – January 17, 2016
First Look Wednesday, September 9, 3 – 5 PM
Member Preview, 5 – 7 PM
Public Reception, Thursday, September 10, 5 – 7 PM
Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the most significant American Modernists and was arguably the most important woman artist of the twentieth century. She is known for the originality and individuality of her personal style of Modernist art. Featuring 36 O’Keeffe oil paintings, 15 works on paper, and supporting materials from the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and private collections, this exhibition tells the story of the working technique of this twentieth-century New Mexico Master.
An American Modernism:
Painting and Photography
October 2, 2015 – February 21, 2016
The international cultural movement known as Modernism resulted in radical new approaches to art making. This selection of more than fifty works from the museum’s collection explores how Modernists in the United States struggled to define modern art in terms of the American experience. Concentrating on the 1920s and 1930s, the selection of paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs illustrate the complexities of establishing a recognizable American style in the early years of the twentieth century. While some believed it should be defined by the precision and dynamism of the machine age, others rejected industrialization and commercialism for the perceived authenticity of nature and rural life. The tensions between these motives and the struggle to find a distinctively American visual vocabulary is demonstrated in works by Andrew Dasburg, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz, Cady Wells, Edward Weston, and many other modern masters.
Looking Forward/Looking Back
September 11, 2015 – January 17, 2016
This exhibition looks back at historic works by significant women artist from the Museum of Art collection while looking forward at new projects by contemporary women artists. Historic works dating to the 1920s to contemporary work created within the past year. This exhibition establishes a dialogue with the “O’Keeffe in Process” exhibition also on view between modernist art created in the latter half of the last century by New Mexico’s most famous woman artist to work created now.
The architects, Rapp and Rapp, had built the wildly successful New Mexico pavilion for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego. They enlarged and modified that design and proposed it for the new art gallery. The Art Gallery of the Museum of New Mexico opened in 1917, and many of the works that were exhibited at the opening remain in the collection today.
The early Art Gallery’s “open door” policy encouraged artists working in New Mexico to exhibit their work, since Santa Fe’s commercial gallery network was years away. That welcome, mixed with the excitement about New Mexico that was generated by the tourism industry, enticed artists with formal training from other parts of the country. The resulting blending and cross-influences of Native American, Hispanic, and European-based cultures created a unique body of work that is the basis of the New Mexico Museum of Art collection.
The museum changed its name over the years, as it grew and redefined its mission. The current name, The New Mexico Museum of Art, was adopted in 2007 to reflect the breadth of New Mexico art. Its previous name, “The Museum of Fine Arts,” had been adopted in 1962.
From top to bottom and left to right: 1) Cady Wells, Untitled, 1938, watercolor, 11 x 14 1/2 in. Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Bequest of Vivian Sloan Fiske, 1978 (4119.23P) Photo by Blair Clark; 2) Georgia O’Keeffe, Spring Tree No. 1, 1945, oil on canvas, 30 x 36 in. Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Gift of the Georgia O’Keeffe Estate, 1987 (1987.312.3) Photograph by Blair Clark © New Mexico Museum of Art; 3) Cady Wells, Untitled, 1938, watercolor, 11 x 14 1/2 in. Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Bequest of Vivian Sloan Fiske, 1978 (4119.23P) Photo by Blair Clark; 4) Angela Ellsworth, Seer Bonnets: A Continuing Offense (Detail), 2009-2010, 9 bonnets, pearl corsage pins, fabric, steel, and white oak plank. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum; Gift of Vicki and Kent Logan.