Winter 2013

2013 / Vol. 118 / No. 4

The First Issue Of El Palacio

The first issue of El Palacio was published in November 1913 as a monthly eight-page broadsheet. Paul Walter served as editor, writing the entirety of the first El Palacio in his clear prose and objective tone. Included are stories of archaeological excavations in the Southwest and Guatemala as well as reporting about the completion of the Palace of the Governors building renovation and the Museum’s participation in the upcoming Panama-California Exposition at San Diego.

By Bruce Bernstein

Categories: Featured

Pindi Pueblo Comes Home To Roost

On December 4, 1933, excavation began on the first site to be listed in the official New Mexico archaeological site registry—Laboratory of Anthropology 1 (or LA 1). Stanley A. Stubbs and W. S. Stallings Jr. of the Laboratory of Anthropology directed the work of dozens of Santa Fe men over the next six months on the north bank of the Santa Fe River near Agua Fria Village.

By Eric Blinman and Stephen S. Post

Categories: Featured

Betty Thomas Toulouse

On the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of El Palacio, Betty Toulouse, then recently retired as curator of collections at the Laboratory of Anthropology, wrote an article titled “Happy Birthday El Palacio” (90 [2], July 1984). She had just finished indexing the first fifty volumes of El Pal, and in her tribute to the magazine noted how the Museum of New Mexico and El Palacio had evolved and grown together since 1913.

Categories: Featured

Folk Art Through The Decades

Since 1953 fourteen words have declared themselves to all who enter the Museum of International Folk Art with the compelling mystery of scripture or a message on an ancient tomb: “The Art of the Craftsman is a Bond Between the Peoples of the World.” Despite its dramatic presentation above the museum entrance, the inscription is unattributed; the author chose anonymity after carefully choosing words that spoke for themselves.

By Carmella Padilla

Categories: Featured, Visual art

The Rio Grande Painters

The Rio Grande Painters group wished at the time to have a gallery outside of the State Art Museum which was still much devoted to “Indian” subjects. Although art was displayed in Santa Fe in the one bank then existing & in cafes, there were no small galleries in the early depression years. —E. Boyd, coordinator and secretary of the Rio Grande Painters Group It seems like a very modest proposal.

By Lois P. Rudnick

Categories: Featured, Visual art

Reading between the Lines

Works on paper are seldom seen in the original. The vulnerable sheets are kept in museum storage drawers or collectors’ albums to protect them from the ravages of exposure to light. The exhibition Renaissance to Goya: Prints and Drawings from Spain, from the famed collections of the British Museum, goes behind the brilliance of Spanish paintings to provide a rare glimpse into the graphics that are a vital but little-known aspect of Spanish art.

By Penelope Hunter-Stiebel

Categories: Featured, Visual art

One Hundred Years of El Palacio

BY CYNTHIA BAUGHMAN The February 16, 1925, issue of El Palacio announced: “The New York Public Library . . . which is consulted daily by more than eight thousand persons, is very anxious to complete its file of El Palacio.” (more…)

Categories: Editor's Letter

Here Now, But Not Always

It’s the 2013 Southwestern Association of American Indian Art’s Indian Market, and I am attending the State of Native Arts symposium at the swank New Mexico History Museum auditorium. Occupying the stage are the best and brightest minds in the business, including leading artists, museum directors, and curators.1 As the discussion turns to exhibition aims and display techniques, a panelist from the Brooklyn Museum argues that Native arts are “ghettoized” in institutions that show only American Indian cultures.

By Nancy Marie Mithlo, PhD

Categories: Visual art

Joe Traugott, Always on Display

Curator Laura Addison’s many contributions to El Palacio include “That Was Then, This Is It,” a history of the magazine, which is online at elpalacio.org. We asked her to interview another of our regular contributors, Joseph Traugott, to mark the occasion of El Palacio’s birthday and Traugott’s retirement from the New Mexico Museum of Art. Addison: Joe, I just wanted to start with the fact you retired in July.

By Laura Addison

Categories: Interviews, Visual art