A man in traditional clothing works with turquoise stones on a bench, featured on the cover of El Palacio magazine, Summer 2014 issue.

Summer 2014

2014 / Vol. 119 / No. 2

Read Loti, Laguna Pueblo A Native American woman in traditional clothing stands holding a large vessel, wearing beaded jewelry and a decorated belt, looking at the camera. [gen-ai]

Loti, Laguna Pueblo

Karl Moon was born in Wilmington, Ohio, in 1878 and moved to Albuquerque, where he established a photography studio in 1904. He started working for the Fred Harvey Company in 1907 and was mentioned as an official photographer for the Santa Fe Railroad in 1909. Moon saw himself as a visual historian belonging to both the scientific and artistic communities.He made thousands of negatives between 1903 and 1930 of Native Americans in the Southwest, and his work was renowned nationwide.

By Daniel Kosharek

Categories: Framework, Visual art

Read A Master’s Private Turquoise A wooden shelf holding glass jars and bottles filled with colored powders or pigments, some labeled with numbers and colors. [gen-ai]

A Master’s Private Turquoise

Turquoise has become so closely associated with New Mexico that I was surprised to realize that Gustave Baumann (1881–1971), the consummate visual interpreter of Santa Fe and its environs, made only sparing use of it in his colored woodblock prints. There it is, outlining a window or door surround in the depiction of an adobe house or, on occasion, one of the many tints he used to capture the effects of the ever-changing New Mexican sky.

By Penelope Hunter-Stiebel

Categories: Visual art

Read Our Lady Comes to the New World A crowned woman holding a child, surrounded by roses and pearls, stands on a crescent moon in an ornate, religious-themed painting. [gen-ai]

Our Lady Comes to the New World

A 1960s wave of ecclesiastical urban renewal convinced priests at mission churches throughout the Americas to ditch their centuries-old artwork. Considered inferior to fine European art, the locally made pieces found little favor with galleries or museums. But Charles W. Collier, then a cultural attaché to Bolivia, and his wife, Nina Perera Collier, knew a treasure when they saw one. The couple began purchasing and obtaining pieces that eventually formed the backbone of the International Institute of Iberian Colonial Art, once based at their Los Luceros estate in northern New Mexico.

By Kate Nelson

Categories: Uncategorized

Read Photography and Identity A framed black-and-white family photo hangs below a smaller square frame with an image of a tree, both connected by two black ribbons against a gray brick wall. [gen-ai]

Photography and Identity

In an initiative titled Focus on Photography, the New Mexico Museum of Art is devoting its three upstairs galleries to a variety of changing photography exhibitions for a full year, from March 7, 2014, through March 15, 2015, presenting numerous opportunities for visitors to look at, learn about, and discuss this ubiquitous and evolving form of picture making.  The second installment of exhibitions will be on view from August 30 through December 7, 2014.

By Katherine Ware

Categories: Visual art

Read Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer Shines Again (Minus One Bird’s Nest) A person wearing sunglasses works on a large outdoor sculpture with metal and painted elements against a clear blue sky. [gen-ai]

Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer Shines Again (Minus One Bird’s Nest)

The twenty-four-foot bronze sculpture Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer stands tall on Milner Plaza in front of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, against a backdrop of New Mexico sky and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The work was purchased in 2004 with funds provided to the Museum of New Mexico Foundation from Sam and Ethel Ballen and has graced Museum Hill with its charismatic presence since.

By Cathy Notarnicola

Categories: Dance, Visual art

Read Layu Resplendent Turquoise on the Roof of the World Square silver pendant with a central floral motif, decorated with turquoise and green stones, and four triangular extensions, each adorned with matching stones. [gen-ai]

Layu Resplendent Turquoise on the Roof of the World

New Mexico’s adoration of the turquoise stone is palpable. Whether native, transplant, transient, or tourist, denizens of the state are wearing it, admiring it on others, or coveting it in the windows of jewelry shops or the displays of artists. But turquoise is not just a Southwest thing. It is cherished all over the world. Take for example, the Himalayas.Treasured by Tibetans, turquoise adorns images of deities, ritual and secular objects, clothing, and people.

Categories: Visual art

Read Turquoise at Ogapogeh A turquoise stone pendant with a small drilled hole, placed against a black background with a centimeter scale below showing 0 to 3 cm. [gen-ai]

Turquoise at Ogapogeh

In October 2008, the Santa Fe Community Convention Center opened at the northeast corner of Grant Avenue and West Marcy Street, just a few blocks north of the plaza. The property has a long and vibrant history. Prior to the Convention Center, going backwards in time, the property housed the Santa Fe Civic Center, Santa Fe High School, portions of the Fort Marcy Military Reservation, portions of the Spanish presidio, and a large Pueblo village.

By Matthew Barbour

Categories: New Mexican cultures, New Mexican history, Southwestern history

Read Living The Turquoise Trail A man in a denim shirt and jeans stands outdoors on rocky terrain, resting one hand on his hip and the other on his knee, looking to his left. [gen-ai]

Living The Turquoise Trail

The scattered presence of turquoise along North America’s Turquoise Trails reveals a surprising history. Some of the most notable of these trails originate at the ancient mines of the Cerrillos District near Santa Fe, spanning a millennium and reaching thousands of miles in every direction. Archaeological evidence at the Cerrillos mine sites dates back to at least AD 900, and the materials mined there were traded throughout the Southwest and into Central America.

By Douglas Magnus

Categories: Featured, Visual art

Read Pueblo Jewelry Making In Chaco Canyon, New Mexico Six assorted stone artifacts, including various arrowhead and tool shapes, are arranged on a gray surface; some have labels or numbers written on them. [gen-ai]

Pueblo Jewelry Making In Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

Jewelry making in the Southwest has a long history, and the Ancestral Pueblo people left behind elegant necklaces of black, white, red, and turquoise beads, as well as pendants and inlaid objects. Some of the most spectacular items were found in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, in the site named Pueblo Bonito, a great house excavated by George Pepper in the late 1890s and Neil Judd during the 1920s.

By Frances Joan Mathien

Categories: Featured