AFA Summer 2020

Summer 72 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Romantics and Modernists in the West A traveling exhibition organized by the Tia Collection in Santa Fe, New Mexico, New Beginnings: An American Story of Romantics and Modernists in the West , includes more than 110 works of art by seventy-two artists. With a concentration of works from the international art colonies of Santa Fe and Taos created during the 1920s and 30s, the exhibition includes material spanning a 100-year time period from the 1880s and into the 1980s. Legions of American and European “movers and shakers” in the art world—artists, writers and patrons—were seduced by the beauty and drama of worlds unknown to them and found new beginnings in the physical and cultural landscapes of northern New Mexico, resulting in a shift of aesthetic, social, and cultural perspectives. These art colonies became the epicenter of cultural exchange, drawing inspiration from and comradery with the Native American and Hispanic communities that had existed there for centuries. New Beginnings focuses on artists working and living in northern New Mexico in the early twentieth century, the beginning of artistic innovation and importance for this area, which is continued to this day. It offers a fresh view of the evolution of art in America, through the aperture of Taos and Santa Fe—from the era of Romanticism, propelled by artists classically trained in Europe who brought their approach to the West, to Modernism. The exhibition starts with the art as evidentiary history and focuses on works and artists who operated on a transnational stage, presenting a comparison of early 20th-century American art, artists, and their legacy by examining regional, national, and international traditions and innovations. Marque works by romantic painters are displayed alongside modernist artists and photographers, as well as artists who are either little known or under-recognized. The earliest artist settlers, including Bert Phillips who moved to Taos in 1898 at the urging of fellow Académie Julian classmate, Joseph Henry Sharp, and Carlos Vierra, who chose Santa Fe in 1904 to improve his respiratory health, were academically trained and used their considerable skills to paint the beauty of Santa Fe and Taos. These paintings established northern New Mexico as representative of the West for audiences throughout America. Successive generations of artists continue to fulfill this legacy, which reinforces the commonplace myth of northern New Mexico as “the land of enchantment.” The Native American and Hispano histories combined with the cosmopolitan make-up of these art colonies as foundations for an embrace of multi-cultural societies that underpin America’s pluralism. With artwork dating from 1888 to 1983, twenty percent of which was created by women artists, this exhibition is organized in three sections. Each section tells a story emblematic of an era, following the shift from nineteenth-century Victoriana to American modernity in the West. Section I: Land & Sky presents the region through the colorful seasonal changes. Section II: Culture presents visual evidence for the enriching exchange between artists and traditional Indian and Hispano cultures. Ceremony & Ritual; A Sense of Place ; and Everyday Life group the paintings and sculpture in the second section of the exhibition. Section III. Working from Life includes still-lifes, portraits, and Leon Gaspard’s painted Kitchen Table and Chairs, which were hand painted by the artist, illustrating how he created beauty in his daily life. New Beginnings: An American Story of Romantics and Modernists in the West is scheduled to remain on view at the Booth Museum, Georgia, through May 3, 2020. It will then tentatively travel to the Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, May 30-September 12, 2020; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, Calif., October 11, 2020– January 3, 2021; Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Mo., Spring/ Summer 2021; National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Okla., Fall 2021/Spring 2022 The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, N.Mex., Summer/Fall 2022. For more details and specific dates, visit the websites of the above institutions. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.  >> > by Laura Smith and MaLin Wilson-Powell NEW BEGINNINGS