Pondering Art in New Mexico: W[h]ither?

Under Construction, c. 1917, New Mexico Museum of Art

Having attended all of the talks this year on "The Artists' Century" at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, the last one yesterday, I've been pondering questions of art and artists in New Mexico in ways I never have before.

This is a good thing, for despite my doddering antiquity, I still enjoy learning new things, looking at things in ways I haven't before, and meeting some of the people who have influenced the course of -- for lack of a better word -- history.

I expect the list of talks and speakers to be taken down from the Museum website, but for now, here it is, and I'll try to go through them one by one.

As some of my readers know, I have something of a connection with the fine arts community in New Mexico through artists I've known mostly in California who came to New Mexico years ago. I've also met many artists in New Mexico over the years, some of whom are New Mexico natives, not California transplants. Though it seems in considering "art in New Mexico" there's no way to avoid a California connection.

'How They Got Art in New Mexico'

 

The Crippled Wagon of Fate on the High Road to Taos, 1898

(Essay upon attendance at the First "Artists Century" talk at the New Mexico Museum of Art, October, 2013)

La Leyenda....

One day in 1898, Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips set out from Denver with a wagon and team of horses. They were highly trained and accomplished fine artists, "easel artists" as they've become known, who went Out West to experience the rough and ready Real World Adventures America still had to offer.

Apparently they were bored in Denver and thought they'd find more inspiration in Mexico. What better way to get there than by wagon and horseback over the spine of the Rockies until they reached the Rio Grande?

Except they never made it to the Rio Grande, never made it to Mexico. Well, of course they would, in time, but on this journey, they didn't.

No, instead, on the high road (such as it was) above Taos, in the wilds of Northern New Mexico, then still a territory of the USofA, a wagon wheel broke, and they were stranded. This is the legend, this is the story, endlessly repeated to this day. Blumenschein is said to have "shouldered" the broken wagon wheel -- though it was tied to the back of one of the horses --  and he humped it the twenty miles or so into the Village of Taos for repairs while Phillips stayed with the broken wagon and had lunch.

Bert Phillips having lunch beside the Fateful Wagon, 1898