Editor’s Letter | A Broad Spectrum

It’s the Summer of Color in Santa Fe

By Kristin Hoerth

 On view at the New Mexico Museum of Art: Dorothy Morang, Sunrise (1940), watercolor, 16 x 19. Gift of John Wright Schaefer, 2009 (2009.48). Photo by Blair Clark.


On view at the New Mexico Museum of Art: Dorothy Morang, Sunrise (1940), watercolor, 16 x 19. Gift of John Wright Schaefer, 2009 (2009.48). Photo by Blair Clark.

This story was featured in the June 2015 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art June 2015 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story!

It’s not often that a group of museums comes together to coordinate their exhibition plans. But that’s just what has happened in Santa Fe, where more than half a dozen museums—as well as galleries and other art organizations—are cooperating to make this “The Summer of Color.” The effort started with the institutions located on Museum Hill; each features a specific color in its exhibitions and programming. The Museum of International Folk Art presents The Red That Colored the World, which focuses on the history of cochineal, an insect-based dye that produces brilliant reds used in textiles, decorative arts, clothing, and many other objects. The Museum of Spanish Colonial Art features Blue on Blue: Indigo and Cobalt in New Spain, which examines the use and importance of blue dyes and pigments over the centuries.

At the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, a different shade of blue rules the summer. Turquoise, Water, Sky: The Stone and Its Meaning includes hundreds of pieces of turquoise jewelry, exploring the significance of the stone to native peoples. Jewelry is also the star attraction at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, which concentrates on silver jewelry in opening its brand-new Center for the Study of Southwestern Jewelry—the first museum gallery in the country devoted permanently to Navajo and Pueblo jewelry-making. Two other Museum Hill institutions, the Santa Fe Botanical Garden and the International Folk Art Market, join the fun with a variety of activities.

Also participating in the colorful festivities are three museums located downtown. The New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors presents Adobe Summer, a series of programs that explore adobe construction in its many hues of tan, red, and brown. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s summer exhibition is Georgia O’Keeffe: Line, Color, Composition. It zeroes in on O’Keeffe’s disciplined approach to drawing, her creative sense of composition, and the ways in which both contributed to her dramatic use of color.

Finally, at the New Mexico Museum of Art, curator Carmen Vendelin has gathered gems from the permanent collection to create Colors of the Southwest, which celebrates the entire color spectrum. Primarily a landscape exhibition, it features mostly paintings and prints from the early 20th century to the present. Many of the stars of the New Mexico art world (both living and deceased) are included: Gustave Baumann, T.C. Cannon, Andrew Dasburg, Robert Daughters, Marsden Hartley, Douglas Johnson, Agnes Martin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Tom Palmore, Billy Schenck, and Fritz Scholder.

I hope you can experience all the color for yourself this summer!

 

Featured in the June 2015 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
Southwest Art June 2015 print issue or digital download Or subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss a story!

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