Vladem Contemporary Examines Closing Decades of 20th Century Art in New Mexico
By Chadd Scott on
New Mexico has been a destination for artists since before New Mexico was a state.
Statehood arrived in 1912, long after Joseph Henry Sharp’s first came to Taos from “back East” in 1893. Five years later, Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips made the journey.
None expected to stay long.
All did.
Sharp, Blumenschein, and Phillis, along with E. Irving Couse, Oscar E. Berninghaus, and W. Herbert Dunton would form the Taos Society of Artists in 1915. Others would join them.
Gustave Bauman moved to Santa Fe in 1918.
Los Cinco Pintores followed, forming in 1921.
Most famously, Georgia O’Keeffe began visiting the state in 1929. In 1949, she moved there for good.
In between, the Transcendental Painting Group formed and disbanded.
Countless others came and left and came and stayed.
Artist migrations to New Mexico in the first half of the 20th century and their impacts are well storied, but that has not been the case for its concluding decades. Enough time has passed, however, to place those artists into the state’s lineage and Vladem Contemporary in Santa Fe does just that during the exhibition, “Off-Center: New Mexico Art, 1970-2000.”
David Bradley, ‘El Farol: Canyon Road Cantina,’ 2000, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 60 in. Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Gift of James and Margie Krebs, 2005 (2004.2.7). © David Bradley. Photo by Blair Clark.
What attracted the Taos Founders and Freemont Ellis and O’Keeffe – the state’s distinctive climate and breathtaking landscape, rich diversity of cultures, generations of accomplished artists, and reputation as a center for the visual arts – continued attracting subsequent generations.
“The desire for many to escape their prescribed identities, or to leave behind the burden of bigoted beliefs, led them to the seemingly endless space and vast open sky of New Mexico,” Christian Waguespack, Head of Curatorial Affairs at the New Mexico Museum of Art, said. “Encouraged by supportive academic institutions, galleries, markets, and museums, the artistic incubator that is New Mexico has flourished, and continues to this day.”
While what drew later-20th century artists to the state remained consistent with their forebearers, the work they produced there, in many ways, did not.
“The 1970s, 80s, and 90s represented a time of artistic transition and experimentation, especially a dramatic expansion and diversification of media with which artists would engage,” Waguespack explained. “With that in mind, ‘Off Center’ will feature an impressive breadth of media, including not only more traditional painting on canvas, mixed media including work with neon, prints, and photography, but also sculpture, drawing, ceramics, installation, photo collage, assemblage, video, fiberglass sculpture, glass, found objects, and more.”
These artists additionally fused what existed previously in New Mexico with the prevailing contemporary art trends of the day: pop, industrial realism, hyperrealism, minimalism, light and space, conceptualism.
Contemporary artists closing out the century in state also spread beyond the established creative capitals of Taos, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque. Those places began filling up and becoming expensive. Younger artists sought out new locales offering more room to breathe, live, and work. They found cheap land and built studios in places like Silver City, Las Cruces, Gallup, Truth or Consequences, and Roswell.
“There is also the opportunity for community building,” Waguespack said. “For example, once folks like Harmony Hammond and Lucy Lippard moved to Galisteo, it grew as a community for like-minded artists and thinkers. On the other hand, some artists were looking for more isolation and were drawn to smaller towns for the independence and freedom from the confines of a predetermined scene.”
Many artists put down roots in these further flung locations, creating small, but thriving creative hubs which remain there today, decentralizing where art is being made.
Critical to New Mexico’s artistic evolution during this era was an unabated cascade of the most promising young Indigenous artists from across America. When the Institute of American Indian Arts was founded in Santa Fe in 1962, its students began mixing with New Mexico’s established and upcoming Native artists, combining to create the epicenter of Native American art.
Larry McNeil, ‘Real Indians,’ 1977 (printed 2007), pigment print, 10 × 10 1/2 in. Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Gift Patrick Nagatani, 2016 (2016.4.1) © Larry McNeil. Photo by Blair Clark.
“(IAIA) changed the public face of Native art and created one of the most impactful contemporary art institutions in the nation and is a fantastic example of a part of this story that is both an institution and community,” Waguespack said.
First generation IAIA students from outside of New Mexico like Earl Biss, Kevin Red Star, Doug Hyde, Linda Lomahaftewa, T.C. Cannon, Benjamin Harjo Jr., and Dan Namingha mixed and mingled with students from New Mexico and their instructors, icons including Fritz Scholder, Charles Loloma, and Allen Houser, who were also brought to Santa Fe by the school, creating the big bang of contemporary Native art.
Each one of them remains a presence in the city and state today.
“Off Center” further features an oral history project. Vladem Contemporary is an arm of the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe’s only museum dedicated to broadly collecting contemporary art, a mission it has pursued since its 1917 founding.
“It is important for us not just to exhibit this work, but also capture these histories for posterity. This exhibition is the first step in writing the art history of this moment, and a major component of that is creating a body of research material for future scholars,” Waguespack explained. “Many clips from these oral history interviews will be available to watch and listen to in the gallery.”
Access to full-length interviews will be accessible though the museum’s library and archives for researchers.
Artmaking in New Mexico has evolved, but it has never ceased, or slowed, and that tradition goes back over 1000 years. The Taos Founders, Bauman, Ellis, and O’Keeffe are beloved and connected to the state 100 years after their arrival; time will place a similar shine on the later 20th century artists who followed, artists like Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman, Billy Schenck, Scholder, Canon, David Bradley, Judy Chicago, Lomahaftewa, Biss, R.C. Gorman, Houser, Namingha, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Harry Fonseca. They are among the almost 150 artists with work on view during the run of “Off Center” through May 4, 2025.
