Santa Fe’s Monthly
m
a
g
a
z
i
n
e
of and for the Arts • April 2009
PRETTY IS AS PRETTY DOES
through MAY 10, 2009
Chiho Aoshima Rina Banerjee Tanyth Berkeley Ligia Bouton Kathy Butterly Angelo Filomeno David Leigh Marilyn Minter Judith Schaechter Image: Judith Schaechter, My One Desire, 2007
Art & Culture TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 6 pm
TXTual Healing An Interactive Performance by Paul Notzold TXTual Healing is an ongoing series of interactive performances that encourages the creation of dialogue through text messaging from mobile phones. Use your cell phone as a medium to explore our shared public and physical space. Co-sponsored by Linda Durham Contemporary Art
TUESDAY, UESDAY, MAY 5, 6 pm UESDAY
Artist Talk by Judith Schaechter Featured in Pretty, Schaechter’s work is figurative, possibly narrative, and sometimes difficult—she will address these issues in a way that seems to answer everything yet dispels none of the mystery. Co-sponsored by William Shearburn Gallery
1606 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe, NM 87501 | 505.989.1199 | www.sitesantafe.org Funding for this exhibition is generously provided by: LLWW Foundation, EVO Gallery, and Zane Bennett Family Foundation, with additional support from Claire Oliver Gallery and Salon 94. The Arts & Culture series is made possible by a generous endowment from the Marlene Nathan Meyerson Family Foundation. Support for SITE Santa Fe’s exhibitions and programs is generously provided by the Board of Directors, many individuals, and the following major contributors: The Brown Foundation, Inc., Houston; The Burnett Foun Foundation; The City of Santa Fe Arts Commission and the 1% Lodgers’ Tax; New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts; Lannan Foundation; McCune Charitable Foundation; and the Thaw Charitable Trust. This announcement is funded in part by the Santa Fe Arts Commission and the 1% Lodgers’ Tax. Special thanks to THE magazine.
contents con tents 5
Letters
33 National Spotlight: Munkacsi’s Lost Archive at the ICP, New York City
10
Universe of artist Matthew Chase-Daniel
35 Feature: Three Santa Fe Private Art Dealers
15
Studio Visits: David Michael Kennedy and Rebecca Lamoreux
17
Food for Thought: Slow Food
39 Reflections from Chicago: Ensuring that Women’s Achievements Become a Permanent Part of Our Cultural Heritage, by Judy Chicago
19
One Bottle: 2004 Zenato Amarone Classico della Valpolicella, by Joshua Baer
21
Dining Guide: 315 Restaurant & Wine Bar and Copa de Oro
25
Openings & Receptions
41 Critical Reflections: Emily Kimball at box Gallery; Frederick Hammersley at Charlotte Jackson Fine Art; Helmut Dorner at James Kelly Contemporary; James Havard at Linda Durham Contemporary Art; Lee Friedlander New Mexico at Andrew Smith Gallery; photo-eye Staff Show at photo-eye Books; Photography: New Mexico at the University of New Mexico Art Museum (Alb.); and Reiko Kakiuchi-Cohen at Touching Stone.
26
Out & About
49 Architectural Details: Luminous Adobe, photograph by Robert Drummond
31
Previews: Larry Bell at the Encore Gallery, Taos Community Auditorium; Elmer Schooley at Meyer East Gallery, and Mark Shaw at Monroe Gallery of Photography.
50 Writings: “Ode to the Rio Grande (After Neruda)”, by Julie Chase-Daniel
Cuba, Singing with Bright Tears (Pond Press, $50. www.pondpress.com/Virginia Beahan)—is a beautiful book of ninety-seven color photographs by Virginia Beahan. In her photographs, Beahan succeeds in capturing the various textures of Cuba’s culture and landscape. Her images include empty beaches, shrines, larger-than-life figures such as Che Guevera and other revolutionaries in fields and urban environments, abandoned prison camps, tobacco and cane fields, deserted buildings, residences, business facades, memorials to fallen urban guerillas, and, even a photograph of Ernest Hemingway’s favorite bar—La Terraza—in the fishing village of Cojimar. As Pico Iyer writes in the introduction, “The real seduction of Cuba lies in its impromptu makeshift quality, and in the fact that it feels so deserted; the whole island has the ramshackle glamour of an abandoned stage set.” This is a must-see book that reveals the uncommon aspects of the multifaceted history of this remarkable island. D
R EADI NGS & CON V E R SAT I O N S
Jhumpa Lahiri with Peter Stein Wednesday 15 April 2009 7 pm Tickets on Sale Now!
5 6 0 0-%
4
“Shimmering... The literary prize committees should once again take note... To read [Unaccustomed Earth] and only take away an experience of cultural tourism would be akin to reading Dante only to retain how medieval Italians slurped their spaghetti. Lahiri’s fiction delves deep into the universal theme of isolation... Lahiri is a lush writer bringing to life worlds through a pileup of detail. But somehow all that richness electrifyingly evokes the void... It’s customary when reviewing short story collections to adopt a ‘one from column A, two from column B’ kind of structure—you know, the title story always gets a ritual nod, followed by a run-down of which stories are the strongest, which have just been included for filler. But another stereotype-confounding aspect of Lahiri’s writing is that there aren’t any weak stories here: every one seems like the best, the most vivid, until you read the next one... Lahiri ingeniously reworks the situation of characters subsisting at point zero, of being stripped down like Lear on the heath. [Unaccustomed Earth] certainly makes a contribution to the literature of immigration, but it also takes its rightful place with modernist tales from whatever culture in which characters find themselves doomed to try and fail to only connect.” —Maureen Corrigan, “Fresh Air”
Marge Piercy with Martín Espada Wednesday 20 May 2009 7 pm Tickets on sale Saturday April 4 th "There are some exquisite love poems here: "Making love new" begins, "married love is remaking,/ rekindling, taking this lump of / light at the center of our beings / and feeding it bright, blinding / again...."Her descriptions of places are spot-on: the Detroit of her childhood ("hard / furtive kisses against the wall / of a hallway smelling of cabbage") or a cleanedup City of Light superimposed over one that a half century before was "shown to me by my soon-to-be-hus- / band to prove Paris could be worse / than my Detroit, and it sort of was." Her ability to evoke seasonal changes and weather may not be the type of thing for which Piercy's admirers usually turn to her, but to my Gulf Coast mind, slogging through another late summer morning of what we call "80 by 8:00", a poet who describes August as "like lint in the lungs" and writes, "If Jell-O could be hot, it would be this air," gets an up from both of my thumbs - right and left." —The Hudson Review
All tickets for all events are sold at the Lensic Performing Arts Center. Tickets can be purchased in person, by telephone, or online at: Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Box Office hours: Monday – Friday 10am – 4 pm; Saturday – Sunday Noon to show time Telephone 505.988.1234. www.lensic.com s
All tickets are for reserved seating. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
s
General Admission $6 and Senior/Student with ID $3. Ticket purchases are limited to four per person.
Proceeds will be donated to the Lensic Performing Arts Center.
www.lannan.org
Lannan is podcasting Readings & Conversations! Please visit our website, www.lannan.org, to learn more, listen, read author biographies and subscribe to have the events automatically downloaded to your computer.
LETTERS
magazine
VOLUME XVI, NUMBER VII WINNER 1994 Best Consumer Tabloid SELECTED 1997 Top-5 Best Consumer Tabloids SELECTED 2005-06 Top-5 Best Consumer Tabloids P U B L i S h e R / C R e AT i V e D i R e C T O R gUyy Cross PUBLiSheR / FOOD eDiTOR JUdith Cross ART DiReCTOR Chris myers CONTRiBUTiNG eDiTOR diAne ArmitA rmit ge COPy eDiTOR edgAr sCULLy CULL PROOFReADeRS JAmes rodewAL odewALd KenJi BArrett S TA F F P h O T O G R A P h e R dAnA wALdon PReVieW eDiTOR rinChen LhAmo CALeNDAR eDiTOR Liz nApierAL pier sKi pierAL
The Center for Contemporary Arts celebrates its thirty-year anniversary on April 18 at 6:30 pm. Hors d’oeuvres, wine tasting, and martinis will be followed by an art auction to benefit CCA. Tickets: $75 members / $95 non-members. 982-1338. (Above image by Frank Ettenberg.)
CONTRiBUTORS
JAn AdLmAnn, diAne ArmitA rmitAge Age, JoshUA UA BAer, Jon CArver, JULie ChAse A -d Ase dAnieL, JUdy dy ChiCAgo CA , CAgo KAthryn Athryn m dAvis Avis, roBert drU r mmond, dAriUs miLes, And nd ALex ross COVeR
Painting by Judy Miller Courtesy: Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe
TO THE EDITOR:
sending it, and for using my image as the cover! I am thrilled!
Santa Fe Clay, along with many businesses in the Santa Fe Railyard
I thank you for the honor and your kind words of compliment and
Project, has requested that the city immediately remove all parking
encouragement. Keep up the good work. I’m really enjoying the
meters and kiosks. Paid parking is discouraging traffic, creating
issue and hope to have the chance to work with you in the future.
devastating ill will in the community, and threatening the survival of
—vAnessA ho, singApore, viA emAiL —v
many local businesses in the area, as well as the success of the Railyard Project as a whole. Urgent action is necessary to bring Santa Feans back to the Railyard. After three grand openings last fall—and the arrival
TO THE EDITOR:
of the Rail Runner—the project is a mass (and a mess) of unfinished
I’m writing this note of appreciation to let you know how honored
and disruptive construction, fencing, and vacant/unleased buildings.
I am to have my book Being in Pictures included in your Best Books
Santa Feans tell me they avoid coming to the area because it is not
issue. And I am pleased that the reviewer—Kathryn M Davis—knew
inviting, and they resent the paid parking policy of the Railyard Project.
my work from other sources. Thanks for the attention you’ve given
The delay of the cinema is the last insult—an unsightly construction
my book through your wonderful publication.
site fronting the new plaza. The walkways, roadways, and plaza
—JoA o nne LeonArd, University oF miChigAn
itself—crucial to the infrastructure of the Railyard Project—are on permanent hold until the cinema is completed, which could take two more years. The Santa Fe Railyard Project, once touted
TO THE EDITOR:
ADVeRTiSiNG SALeS
as the most exciting new development in Santa Fe, has become a
As well as a literary treat, the annual “Best Books” issue of
rose dArLAnd: 505-577-8728 (moBiLe) sheri mAnn: 505-989-1214 or 501-2948 (moBiLe) reBeCCA o’dAy A : 505-699-1915 (moBiLe) the mAgAzine A Azine : 505-424-7641
enormous disappointment, and for many a very difficult place to
THE magazine is simply one your most visually pleasing issues ever.
operate a business.
Exceptional! Saludos to your designer, Chris Myers.
—AvrA vrA LeodA eod s, sAntA ntA Fe CLAy ntA LA
—Jesse hAnseLL, sAn migUeL de ALLende, mexiCo
TO THE EDITOR:
TO THE EDITOR:
The cover of your February/March issue is absolutley amazing.
It’s a mess out there. Life as we knew it is over. I’m stockpiling
I have gone to the Flickr Website and contacted Vanessa Ho (the
rice and beans. No more foie gras for the kitties! Even
cover girl) to purchase the cover photograph, along with several
still, they eat better than the kids in “Slumdog Millionaire.”
more by other photographers in the issue. By printing these
Sorry, I must cancel my subscription. I am flat broke.
photographs you have done both the photographers and your
—s.L. BentLey, sAn Antonio, texA ex s
DiSTRiBUTiON
Jimmy montoyA ontoy : 470-0258 (moBiLe) THE magazine is published ten times a year by THE magazine Inc., 1208A Mercantile Road, Santa Fe, NM 87507. Corporate address: 44 Bishop Lamy Road, Lamy, NM 87540. Phone (505) 424-7641. Fax: (505) 424-7642, E-mail:THEmag1@aol.com. Website: www.TheMagazineOnLine.com. All material copyright 2009 by THE magazine. All rights are reserved by THE magazine. Reproduction of contents within are prohibied without written permission from THE magazine. All submissions must be accompnied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. THE magazine is in no way responsible for the loss of any unsolicited materials. THE magazine is not responsible or liable for any misspellings, incorrect dates, or incorrect informa information in its captions, calendar, or other listings. The opinions expressed within the fair confines of THE magazine do not necessarily represent the views or policies of THE magazine, its owners, or any of its agents, staff, employees, members, interns, volunteers, or distribution venues. Bylined articles and editorials represent the views of their authors. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters may be edited for style and libel, and are subject to condensation. THE magazine accepts advertisements from advertisers believed to be of good reputation, but cannot guarantee the autheticity or quality of objects and/or services advertised. As well, THE magazine is not responsible for any claims made by its advertisers; for copyright infringement by its adve tisers; and is not responsible or liable for any mistakes in any advertisement.
| april 2009
readers a great service. Renew my subscription.
—Ken devenire, sALt AL LAKe City, UtA t h
Send letters by email to: themag1@aol.com or mail letters to: THE magazine 1208-A Mercantile Road, Santa Fe, NM 87507.
TO THE EDITOR: I recently got THE magazine in the mail. Thank you so much for
This issue is dedicated to the life of Stella Keane. THE
MAGAZINE
| 5
BradEllis PATTERN, RHYTHM & PROCESS April 3-26.2009 Opening Reception: Friday, April 3, 5:30 -7:30 PM
Rattleback, 2009, encaustic and collage on canvas, 60" x 60"
Pearl Drops #09-01 (detail), 2009, encaustic and collage on canvas, 72" x 84"
LLC
129 West Palace Avenue Santa Fe, NM 87501 tel 505.988.8997 www.lewallencontemporary.com info@lewallencontemporary.com
April 11 - June 5
MONROE GALLERY of photography
artist reception: Friday June 5, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
MARK SHAW: A RETROSPECTIVE
William Betts Simpatia é Quase Amor
John F. Kennedy relaxing with Jacqueline and Caroline, Hyannis Port, 1959
A major retrospective exhibition of one of the most sought-after photographers of the 1950s and '60s, concurrent with the publication of the new book "Charmed By Audrey". Although he is perhaps best known for his photographs of Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy and their family, Mark Shaw was a leading photographer for Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle, and many other fashion magazines and completed many important assignments for LIFE magazine, including an extensive feature with Audrey Hepburn in 1953. Following Mark Shaw's untimely death in 1969 at the age of 47, his son David Shaw has recently unearthed, archived and made available an extensive collection of photographs for this exhibition.
Opening Reception with David Shaw Friday, April 24 5 – 7 pm Exhibition continues through June 28
Richard Levy Gallery
•
Albuquerque
•
www.levygallery.com
•
505.766.9888
112 DON GASPAR SANTA FE NM 87501 992.0800 F: 992.0810 e: info@monroegallery.com www.monroegallery.com
WILLIAM SIEGAL GALLERY ANCIENT CONTEMPORARY
PARKINSONS
A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME AND SPACE
BUNNY CONLON
EDDIE DAYAN
April 17 - May 8 opening April 17 5 - 7 pm 540 SOUTH GUADALUPE STREET, SANTA FE NM
505.820.3300
WILLIAMSIEGAL.COM
is one busy artist. During the past ten years he has participated in over sixty exhibitions around the world. He works in a variety of mediums: photography, photomontage, drawing, plant-based sculpture, concrete, and clay. Chase-Daniel’s work goes beyond the obvious, pushing the viewer to really look in order to see. When his work is “fresh,” he guards it closely, showing it to very few people until it has “ripened.”
d An A w ALd on grA ph By pho to gr
Matthew Chase-Daniel
UNIVERSE OF
exploring of Universal Themes
Like a scientist, a spiritual seeker, or a philosopher, I am searching for a deep understanding of the workings of the world that surrounds and captivates me. My studio is a place of experimentation and investigation, as much as a venue for introspection
and self-expression. Each medium presents a different path to me. Creating sculpture from wild plants engages a different part of my
body and mind than making photographs does. My aim is that the group of processes and mediums, taken as a whole, helps me to further my explorations in all parts of
my body, mind, and spirit. My finished work is inseparable from the metabolic process I am engaged in during the creation. By engaging my full self, themes that are taken on
as personal become universal.
The Pole Sculptures The Pod Sculptures
My Pod Sculptures explore the human-plant relationship. I’ve taken naturally occurring
My Pole Sculptures are ephemeral collections of natural wild-collected materials hung from the tops of long poles, set vertically in
plant forms (primarily seedpods) and recreated them on a vastly larger scale. The final forms are co-created by the plants
themselves. Some materials bend more then others, or grow larger, or branch in a different pattern. While designing and building these sculptures, I’m engaged in a
dialogue with the plants. What result are sculptures that are not only visually engaging, but also a source of connection for the viewer with some larger force, an evocation of an archetypal form. Different viewers see different forms in
the same sculpture. Some see a pea pod, some a boat, or a nest, a cocoon, or a whale. This effect on the viewer is a result of my dialogue with the plants. When I create forms
the earth. They are prayers. I search out and collect abundant proliferations of life forms—gourds, grasses,
pinecones, leaves, shells, potatoes, wool, or vines—and string, ball, or bundle them according to their natural form. High atop the poles this abundance is revered, a natural altar and a prayer for continued wellbeing of the local community. It’s also a
signpost, or a flag, proclaiming an alliance with the natural world for all to see. Over time, wind and rain, ice and sun, transform the materials and they fall to earth— rejoining the landscape, spreading both their organic matter and a prayerful intention for fecund vitality.
The elongated experience of Seeing I’m working in my photographs to understand how we really see. We need time to get to know a place.
The brief exposure of a photograph doesn’t resonate with my experience of being and seeing. So I take the time to shoot many photos over several minutes or several hours. And not all in one rooted spot. I crouch down and look closer at what intrigues me, scan the horizon, wade in the water,
climb a tree, or walk up a path to know the spirit of the place. Later, I recompose a portrait of the landscape using the captured glances and observations. The result is a distillation of an experience, an elixir to communicate the elongated experience of seeing. D
on this primal level, results are neither abstract nor rigidly representational, but natural and universal.
Chase-Daniel will be showing his new Pod Sculptures at Salon Mar Graff in Tesuque, with receptions on Thursday and Friday, April 23-24 from 5 to 8 pm. He will also be exhibiting his new Pole Sculptures at the Albuquerque Open Space Visitor Center in June, and showing work at Victoria Price Art & Design on Friday, June 6, 2009.
| april 2009
The magazine | 11
c o n t e m p o r a r y
SANTA
FE
CONTEMPORARY ART FURNITURE Lighting • Paintings • Sculpture w w w. e r n s t g r u l e r. c o m
1513 5 t h St • S a n ta F e • by a p p o i n t m e n t
9 2 8 . 3 0 0 . 1 0 7 6
Decks Garages Portales Casitas Done Right! On Time! On Budget! No Excuses! Lic# 355946
Art Gallery and Studio Construction, Remodeling & General Carpentry
505-316-8167
•
www.weldonconstruction.net
The Lofts at
1012
MARQUEZ PLACE
BUILDING
1, SUITE 107A
©Aveda Corp.
505.995.9800
LIVE IN THE NOW.
Fringed. Blunt cut. Long and layered. Update your image — while enjoying the Aveda Concept Salon difference: signature treatments that go above and beyond, from a moment of stress-relief for head and shoulders, to a shaving consultation or makeup touch-up. Free with your hair cut or color.
Invite style into your life — call to book an appointment today. Find other participating Aveda locations at 800.328.0849 or aveda.com.
IYENGA R YOGA
The coffee house on Cerrillos Road Serving only Fair Trade Coffee Espressos • Lattes • Cappuccinos Breakfast • Lunch Drive-Up Window Free Wireless Monday-Saturday: 6 am - 5 pm 2411 Cerrillos Road 473-9092
Regular classes � Mon�Wed�Fri at �:�� AM � Sun �:�� � Tues �:�� PM Classes last � ��� hours except Wed Intermediate which lasts � hours Yoga Therapy Sessions � Mon & Fri � ��:�����:�� PM DE B O R A
T OW � � �� �� W WE E ST H HO O UG H T ON S ST T�S SA AN T A F FE E� N NM M� � ��� ��� a�com
Certified intermediate Iyengar Yoga Teacher. Call or email for class schedule
Simply Wonderful Food
In The Courtyard at the Agora in Eldorado NOW OPEN EVERYDAY! Why not choose our Seductive Moroccan Lamb Stew and Finish with a Kahlœ a¨ Macadamia Nut Brownie?
Ongoing Fabulosity!
466-8668 Hours 11:30am - 3pm, 5pm-8:30pm
STUDIO
VISITS
Baudelaire once said, “An artist is only an artist on condition that he neglects no aspect of his dual nature. That dualism is the power of being oneself and someone else at one and the same time.” We asked two artists to comment on this statement.
Dualism as it relates to art is the subconscious, the spiritual being expressing itself. An artist’s work is the artist’s soul speaking out. An artist does not consciously know exactly what he or she is creating.
—Rebecca Lamoreux To see Lamoreux’s work, email rebkev@comcast.net
photographs by D a n a W al d o n
Duality is the realm of the Heyoka (www. davidmichaelkennedy.com/dancers/lakota_ heyoka.html). Duality is not the power of being oneself and someone else at the same time but being in touch with both aspects of oneself. Call it the yin and yang, natural and artificial, positive and negative, digital and analogue, whatever you wish. Tapping in to one’s duality allows you to explore all aspects of self and constantly tap those resources as you create. As to Baudelaire’s statement, this is his truth. Duality in and of itself would negate this statement.
—David Michael Kennedy In 2008, Kennedy exhibited at the Warner Gallery at the Holbrook Art Center, Millbrook, New York, and at JB Art at the Elms, Oklahoma City. In 2009, an exhibition of never-before-seen color images from Kennedy’s archives will be on view at Spin Gallery, London, England. Date to be announced. Contact Kennedy at dmkphoto@earthlink.net
| april 2009
THE magazine | 15
Special Expanded Brunch on Easter Sunday, April 12 11-2 Saturday and Sunday Brunches 11-2 Dinner: Tuesday - Sunday 5:30-9:30 428 Agua Fria Santa Fe 505.988.2836
+
= 312 Read St. Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.989.1904
Mon-Fri 7am - 2:30pm Sat 9am - 2:30pm Wed-Sat 5:30pm - 9pm Closed Sundays
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
SLOW FOOD When we claim that eating well is an elitist preoccupation, we create a smokescreen that obscures the fundamental role our food decisions have in shaping the world. The reason that eating well in this country costs more than eating poorly is that we have a set of agricultural policies that subsidize fast food and make fresh, wholesome foods, which receive no government support, seem expensive. Organic foods seem elitist only because industrial food is artificially cheap, with its real costs being charged to the public purse, the public health, and the environment. —Alice Waters
In 1986, Carlo Petrini founded the Slow Food movement in Italy to counter the opening of a McDonald’s in Rome. Since then the movement has expanded to include over 83,000 members with chapters in more than 120 countries. The idea behind Slow Food is the idea behind Chez Panisse in Berkeley, which is that people should know and appreciate where their food comes from. As well, food should be a community event with meals made from fresh, local ingredients that are shared among friends. Slow Food activists believe that the quality of food, and not just its quantity, must guide our agriculture. And the way that we grow, distribute, and prepare food should celebrate our various cultures and our shared humanity, providing not only nourishment, but beauty and pleasure. Call this “mindful eating”—the seeking out of local, organic, and sustainably harvested food, which means stepping off the treadmill of deadening conventional habits and creating your own path. This takes energy and dedication, but the rewards are plentiful. When Alice Waters calls Slow Food a “counterculture,” this is right on—food is political, and this has never been more true than today. To learn more about Slow Food in New Mexico, send an email to slowfoodsantafe@gmail.com. D | april 2009
THE
MAGAZINE
| 17
Photo: Guy Cross
OUR FABULOUS SUNDAY BRUNCH HAS RETURNED!
“BEST CALAMARI IN THE WORLD” HISTORIC LOCATION / HISTORIC RESTAURANT REASONABLE PRICES LUNCH AND DINNER MONDAY THRU SATURDAY NOW SERVING SUNDAY BRUNCH ALWAYS À LA CARTE
231 WASHINGTON AVENUE - RESERVATIONS 505 984 1788 MENUS, SPECIAL EVENTS, INSTANT GIFT CERTIFICATES ONLINE WWW.SANTACAFE.COM - LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED FOR OVER 25 YEARS
ONE BOTTLE
One Bottle:
The 2004 Zenato Amarone Classico della Valpolicella by Joshua Baer Have you ever had sex with someone and felt nothing? Or, worse,
A glimpse may not seem like much, but when you consider that you
have you ever had sex with someone and felt next to nothing?
are seeing the immortal part of yourself, the part that was there
Have you ever been on your way to the store and woken up an hour later with two bags of groceries in the back seat and no memory of how they got there? Have you ever met a man in his late fifties or early sixties, usually with a head of stringy grey hair pulled back into a
before you were born and will be there after you die, a glimpse is a great treasure. Which brings us to the 2004 Zenato Amarone Classico della Valpolicella.
ponytail, and known from the moment you shook hands with him that
The cepage is eighty percent Corvina, ten percent Rondinella,
he wanted to strangle you? Have you ever seen an old woman sitting
and ten percent Sangiovese. The grapes are picked in early October.
by the bank of a river, looking at her hands, and then walked closer
After sorting, the grapes with the right degree of ripeness are laid on
and realized that you were looking at a tree trunk with dead branches
straw palates in a ventilated room and allowed to raisin until January.
piled on top of it?
After pressing, the juice from the raisined grapes is allowed to ferment
Have you ever dreamt about the jet that cannot land at the
on its skins for three weeks. The wine is then refined in tanks for
airport, the jet that is flying over a city, trying to find an avenue
three months, aged in oak barrels for two years, and stored in
where it can land?
bottles for at least six months before being released to the market.
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be tempted to think that your soul is at risk. Or, if you are given to despair, you may believe that you have lost your soul.
This process is a modern version of the way wines were made in the ancient world. In the glass, the 2004 Zenato Amarone is simultaneously
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I’m
cautious and reckless. The color is a deep, dark scarlet.
about to tell you about a wine that will restore your soul, or
The bouquet suggests that you are about to make a discovery
a wine that will go out into the world, find your soul, and
that will bring you face-to-face with the things you take for
return it to you. I wish I could tell you that. I wish I had that kind of
granted. That discovery may or may not change your life but it will change the way you value yourself. On the palate
wisdom about the power of wine. The truth is, certain
this wine can be disorienting. If you are used to wines that
wines may have that kind of power, but even if they
tell you everything about themselves during the first sip,
do, I do not have that kind of wisdom. At this point,
the 2004 Zenato Amarone will seem like a wine that is
I could wing it and tell you that drinking the right wine
withholding information. On the other hand, if you are
will restore your soul, but that would be—at best—an
used to wines that crack jokes and tell stories, you will
attempt to tell the truth by lying. I may not be wise,
feel right at home.
but experience has taught me that attempting to tell the
The finish is more of a drawing than a painting,
truth by lying is a slow, painful form of self-sabotage.
more of a dream than a myth. At first, the finish seems
Given that we have all had enough self-sabotage to last
like a fragment. Later, toward the end of the bottle, that
a lifetime, I’m going to try a different approach.
fragment becomes less jagged and more complete.
The difference between you and your soul is like
Have you ever had the dream about the plane that
the difference between time and eternity. It is also like
is on an avenue in a city, surrounded by cars and trucks?
the difference between mortality and immortality. The
This dream is the inverse of the dream about the plane
ancient Greeks believed that the gods envied men and
that is looking for a place to land. In this dream, the
women for their mortality. In the same way that men
plane is looking for an open stretch of avenue, a clear
and women found life to be terrifying, even on a good
place to accelerate and take off. You sit on the plane and
day, the gods found eternity to be tedious, even on a
wait. You hope the pilot knows what he’s doing. You
terrifying day.
hope that nothing goes wrong during take off and that
What the Greeks were getting at with their myths
you and your fellow passengers will survive. You may
about men, women, and gods was the common ground
even say a prayer, asking God for help. Your seat on that
that exists between eternity and time. The Greek myths
plane is the exact location of your soul. D
about gods meddling in the affairs of men and women boil down to one lesson: Life is neither immortal nor mortal, neither temporal nor eternal. Life is both. For men and women, life is as close as we will get to immortality.
One Bottle is dedicated to the appreciation of good wines and good times, one bottle at a time. The name “One Bottle” and the contents of this column are ©2009 by onebottle.com. Joshua Baer can be reached at jb@onebottle.com.
Wine is not a magic elixir. Wine is more like a resting place, an oasis on the way to our ultimate confrontation with emptiness. When we drink wine we do not solve our problems as much as we see them from a different angle. And, if we’re lucky, we catch a glimpse of our souls in the process.
| april 2009
THE magazine | 19
DINING GUIDE
Superb selection of fine wines and delicious fare at
315 Bistro & Wine Bar 315 Old Santa Fe Trail Reservations: 986-9190
$ KEY
INEXPENSIVE
$
up to $14
MODERATE
$$
$15—$23
EXPENSIVE
$$$
VERY EXPENSIVE
$24—$33
$$$$
Prices are for one dinner entrée. If a restaurant serves only lunch, then a lunch entrée price is reflected. Alcoholic beverages, appetizers, and desserts are not included in these price keys. Call restaurants for hours.
$34 plus
EAT OUT MORE OFTEN!
Photos: Guy Cross
...a guide to the very best restaurants in santa fe and surrounding areas... 315 Bistro & Wine Bar 315 Old Santa Fe Trail. 986-9190. Dinner Beer/wine. Smoke-free inside. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: French. Atmosphere: Three intimate rooms—reminiscent of a small inn in the French countryside. Patio dining. House specialties: Earthy French onion soup made with a duck stock; squash blossom beignets; smooth and rich foie gras terrine with poached cranberries; crispy duck; and one of the most flavorful steaks in town. Comments: Teriffic wine selection. ¡A La Mesa! 428 Agua Fria St. 988-2836 Dinner/Brunch (Sat./Sun) Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Eclectic. Atmosphere: Bustling and friendly. House specialties: Start with the Calamari Jardiniere in a fennel sauce or the Tataki of beef. For your main course, we suggest the flavorful Steak Frites, the perfectly cooked Salmon Osso Bucco, or the Honey and Almond Duck. Finish your meal with Profiteroles with raspberry ice cream, chocolate sauce, and minted chantilly cream. Comments: Good wine list and attentive service. Amavi Restaurant 221 Shelby St. 988-2355. Dinner Full bar. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$$ Cuisine: Mediterranean. Atmosphere: Intimate and attractive. House specialties: Menu changes depending on what is fresh at the market. The tapas are sensational. For our main, we recommend the tiger shrimp with garlic, shallots, smoked pimenton, and sherry, and the pan-roasted ribeye chop. Recommendations: The bouillabaisse is a must—not to be missed. Comments: The bar is fun and wonderful. Anasazi Restaurant Inn of the Anasazi 113 Washington Ave. 988-3236 . Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Smoke-free. Valet parking. Major credit cards. $$$$ Cuisine: Contemporary American cuisine. Atmosphere: A casual and elegant room evoking the feeling of an Anasazi cliff dwelling. House specialties: To start, try the enticing Buffalo carpaccio with thinly-sliced black truffle and frisee or the sublime lavendarglazed squab with mission figs and an aged Porto reduction. For your entree, we suggest the perfectly-prepared rare chipolte-crusted lamb rack or the herb-crusted tenderloin of beef served with whipped poblano potatoes and cipollini onions. Comments: Attentive service, superbly-presented plates, and an excellent wine list, all under the deft hand and guidance of executive chef Oliver Ridgeway. Andiamo! 322 Garfield St. 995-9595. Dinner Beer/wine. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Italian. Atmosphere: Cozy interior with Tuscan yellows and reds. House specialties: The chicken parmesan; baked risotto with mushroom ragout; and any fish special. Comments: Consistently good food
and a sharp wait staff makes Andiamo! one of the places in Santa Fe to eat Italian. Bobcat Bite Restaurant Old Las Vegas Hwy. 983-5319. Lunch/Dinner No alcohol. Smoking. Cash. $$ Cuisine: American. Atmosphere: This is the real deal—a neon bobcat sign sits above a small, low-slung building. Inside are five tables and nine seats at a counter made out of real logs. House specialties: The enormous inch-and-a-half thick green chile cheeseburger is sensational. The 13-ounce rib eye steak is juicy and flavorful. Comments: No desserts. Bumble Bee’s Baja Grill 301 Jefferson St. 820-2862. Breakfast Daily Lunch/Dinner. Patio and drive-up window. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Mexican Atmosphere: Casual, friendly and bright with handy drive-up for those on the go. House specialties: Soft corn Baja-style fish tacos, featuring mahi mahi; steak burrito grande; and rotisserie chickens. Homemade salsa (bowls of it at the salsa bar) and chips are super. Cafe Cafe Italian Grill 500 Sandoval St. 466-1391 Lunch/Dinner Beer/wine. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Italian. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: For lunch, start with the classic Caesar salad; the tasty speciality pizzas; the baked lunch cannelloni; or the grilled eggplant sandwich. At dinner, we loved the perfectly grilled swordfish salmorglio; the fresh linguini and clams; and the herb breaded veal cutlet. Comments: Very friendly waitstaff. Café Loka Las Placitas and Ledoux Courtyard. Taos. 575-758-4204 Breakfast/Lunch Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: American—fresh, organic, and local produce. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: In the am, try the organic egg, cheddar, and ham panini or the housemade organic granola with yougurt and local honey. We love the salad specials and the Turkey and havarti panini. Comments: Nice selection of teas and coffee drinks. Café Pasqual’s 121 Don Gaspar. 983-9340. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Sunday Brunch Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Multi-ethnic. Atmosphere: The café is adorned with lots of Mexican streamers, Indian maiden posters, and rustic wooden furniture. House specialties: Hot cakes get a nod from Gourmet magazine. Huevos motuleños, a Yucatán breakfast, is one you’ll never forget. For lunch, try the grilled chicken breast sandwich with Manchego cheese. The Compound 653 Canyon Road. 982-4353. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$
Cuisine: Contemporary American . Atmosphere: 150-year-old adobe with pale, polished plaster walls and white linen on the table. House specialties: Jumbo crab and lobster salad.The chicken schnitzel is flawless. Recommendations: Deserts are absolutely perfect. Comments: Seasonal menu. Chef/ owner Mark Kiffin didn’t win the James Beard Foundation’s “Best Chef of the Southwest” award for goofing off in the kitchen. Recent wrtie-up in the New York Times. Copa de Oro Agora Center at Eldorado. 466-8668. Lunch/Dinner. & days. Take-out. Wine/Beer. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: International. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Start with the mussels in a Mexican beer and salsa reduction. Entrees include the succulent roasted duck leg quarters, Moroccan lamb stew with polenta, savory palliard of chicken, and the slow-cooked twelve-hour pot roast. Great spicy French Fries. For dessert, go for the lemon mousse or the kahlua macadmia nut brownie. Comments: Well worth the ten-minute drive from downtown Santa Fe. Counter Culture 930 Baca St. 995-1105. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Wine/Beer. Smoke-free. Patio. Cash. $$ Cuisine: All-American. Atmosphere: Informal. House specialties: Breakfast: burritos and frittata. Lunch: sandwiches and salads. Dinner: flash-fried calamari; grilled salmon with leek and pernod cream sauce; and a delicious hanger steak. Comments: Boutique wine list . Cowgirl Hall of Fame 319 S. Guadalupe St. 982-2565 Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoking/non-smoking. Patio Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: All American. Atmosphere: Popular patio shaded with big cottonwoods. Cozy bar. House specialties: Very “Atkins-friendly.” The smoked brisket and ribs are fantastic. Dynamite buffalo burgers; potato salad (with skins); a knockout Texas onion loaf; and strawberry shortcake. Comments: Beers, beers, and more beers—from Bud to the fancy stuff. Coyote Café 132 W. Water St. 983-1615. Dinner Full bar. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$$ Cuisine: Nouville Southwestern. Atmosphere: Fun. House specialties: For your main course, try the Syrah braised beef short risbs; the grilled Maine lobster tails; or Eric’s Southwestern Rotisserie—rock hen, basted butternut squash, Shelby’s sharp chedder greeen chile “mac and cheese” roasted chicken glace. Dessert favorite is the Bernadines coconut pumpkin pie. Downtown Subscription 376 Garcia St. 983-3085. Breakfast/Lunch No alcohol. Smoke-free. Patio. Cash. $ Cuisine: American coffeehouse and newsstand. Atmosphere: Café society. Over 1,600 magazine titles to buy or peruse. Big room
with small tables and a nice patio outside where inside where you can sit and schmooze. House specialties: Espresso, cappuccino, and lattes. El Farol 808 Canyon Rd. 983-9912. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoking/non-smoking. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Spanish. Atmosphere: Wood plank floors, thick adobe walls, and a postagestamp-size dance floor for cheek-to-cheek dancing. Wall murals by Alfred Morang. House specialties: Tapas and paella. El Mesón 213 Washington Ave. 983-6756. Dinner Beer/wine. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Spanish. Atmosphere: Spain could be just around the corner. Music nightly: House specialties: Tapas reign supreme, with classics like Manchego cheese marinated in extra virgin olive oil; sautéed spinach with garlic and golden raisins; and flash-fried baby calamari with two sauces. Comments: Paellas are well worth the 30-minute wait. Geronimo 724 Canyon Rd. 982-1500. Dinner/Lunch-Brunch (Friday-Sunday) Full bar. Smoke-free dining room. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$$ Cuisine: Fusion/eclectic Atmosphere: Two-hundred-year-old building with kiva fireplaces, a portal, and a lovely garden room. House specialties: Entrées include the sauteed Atlantic salmon; the perfectly grilled Amish-raised pork shop; and the delicious New York strip, with a gratin of crushed golden potato, carrot confit, pearl onions, and sauce Bordelaise. Comments: Impeccable service. Il Piatto 95 W. Marcy St. 984-1091. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Italian Atmosphere: Bustling. House specialties: Grilled hanger steak with three cheeses, pancetta and onions; and the lemon and rosemary grilled chicken. Comments: A reasonably priced wine list. Jinja 510 North Guadalupe St. 982-4321. Lunch/Dinner Full Bar. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Pan-Asian. Atmosphere: Dark wood booths and subdued lighting deliver romance and nostalgia. House specialties: Yin Yang tiger shrimp dusted in salt and pepper with a plum ginger sauce, and the classic Pad Thai. Jinja’s drink menu: Mai-Tai, Singapore Sling, Zombie, Kava Bowl, and Volcano drinks. Comments: Great savory soups and a friendly and efficient waitstaff. Joseph’s Table 108-A South Taos Plaza Lunch/Dinner Full bar Visa & Mastercard $$$
Cuisine: Modern American / New Mexicoinspired. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Vodka-cured Wild Salmon served on Corn Blinis with Canadian Caviar. Yes! Josh’s Barbecue 3486 Zafarano Drive, Suite A 474-6466 Lunch/Dinner Beer/wine Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Barbecue. Atmosphere: Casual— a light, bright open room. House specialties: Cuts of meats special-ordered by Josh and then wood-smoked low and slow—are king here. Recommendations: Besides the excellent redchile, honey-glazed ribs and tender brisket, other standouts include the barbecue chicken wings, the smoked chicken tacquitos, and the spicy queso. Comments: Everything is made in-house. Seasonal barbecue sauces range from peach to cherry to apple brown sugar, and will wow your taste buds. Catering for your big event. Kohnami Restaurant 313 S. Guadalupe. 984-2002. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine/Sake. Smoke-free. Patio. Visa & Mastercard. $$ Cuisine: Japanese. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Miso soup; soft shell crab; dragon roll; chicken katsu; noodle dishes; and Bento box specials. Comments: Sushi is always perfect. Great selection of sake. Lamy Station Café Lamy Train Station. Lamy. 466-1904 Lunch/Dinner/Sunday Brunch Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: American. Atmosphere: 1950’s dining car. House specialties: Fantastic green chile stew; crab cakes, omlettes, salads, and the super Reuben sandwich. Comments: Dessert—the apple crisp. Los Mayas 409 W. Water St. 986-9930. Dinner Full bar. Non-smoking. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Both new and old Mexican. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Ceviche; turbo fish marinated in fresh lemon and orange juice; guacamole freso, and the Chile en Nogada. Comments: Flamenco every Saturday. Luminaria Restaurant & Patio at the Inn of Loretto 211 Old Santa Fe Trail 984-7915. Breakfast, lunch, dinner Smoke-free. Valet parking. Major credit cards. $$$$ Cuisine: American/Southwest. Atmosphere: Elegant and romantic. Recommendations: Start with the award-winning tortilla soup or the scrumptious crab enchiladas. For your main course, we suggest the flavorful Cowboy rib-eye, the chile-crusted pork tenderloin, the mountain ruby trout, or the ancho-braised beef short ribs. Dessert: Choose the rustic lemonalmond tart or the artisan cheeses with truffle honey and roasted almonds. Comments: Local, farm fresh foods when available. A sophisticated wine list. Chef Brian Cooper is a steady hand at the helm in the kitchen.
continued on page 23
| april 2009
THE magazine | 21
join us for our new
Spring
gourmet burger series
beginning in april,
the railyard restaurant & saloon will be offering a different series of gourmet burgers weekly! sample menu
Cast-Iron Seared Buffalo Burger
NOSTR ANI R I S T O R A N T E Offering Seasonal Northern Italian Cuisine and a Comprehensive Wine List
Serving Early Spring Vegetables from Our Garden! SANTA F E’S SOLE R EC IPI E NT GOURMET MAGAZINE’S TOP 50 RESTAURANTS 3o4 Johnson Street in Downtown Santa Fe Monday - Saturday 5:3o - 1o pm Reservations 983.38oo or www.trattorianostrani.com
with homemade barbeque sauce & bleu cheese
Grilled Sirloin Steak Burger
with arugula, crimini mushrooms & fontina cheese
California Burger
with avocado, salsa & monterey jack cheese
French Onion Kobe Burger with gruyere & brioche
Second Street Brewery BREW PUB - RESTAURANT
Panfried Burger Milanese
with garlic aioli, tomato sauce & provolone cheese
steaks
U
seafood
U
spirits
lunch monday - saturday 11:30 - 2:30 ◆ bar menu 11:30 - close dinner sun - thurs 5:00 - 9:30 / fri - sat 5:30 -10:00
530 south guadalupe street ◆ 989-3300
Nothing Beats a Sunny Day on the Patio Fine Foods, Fresh Craft Beers: Pints, Pitchers, Growlers
1814 2nd St. 982-3030 • 1814 Second Street 982-3030
DINING GUIDE
of sandwiches (our favorite is the “To Die for Tuna Salad”), a variety of wraps, and fresh, fresh salads. Comments: Wonderful Texas chili and a fantastic cafe latte. Wi-fi in the cafe and take-out are available. Drive-up window. railyard restaurant & salOOn 530 S. Guadalupe St. 989-3300. Lunch: Monday-Saturday Dinner daily Bar Menu daily Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: American Classics Revisited. Atmosphere: Open, spacious, and bustling. house specialties: Appetizers include southern fried buttermilk chicken strips with Creole remoulade dipping sauce. The steaks and chops grab your attention with choices of compound butters that melt on top of the meat.. Other recommendations: Most flavorful burgers in town. Comments: Generous pour at the bar.
C opa de Oro A happy Kitchen = Great Food in the Dining Room
Lunch/Dinner • 7 days a week
The Agora Center at eldorado. 466-8668 ManGiaMO PrOntO! 312 Read St. 989-1904 Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Outdoor seating. Visa/MC. $$ Cuisine: Italian. Atmosphere: Intimate, light, and hip counter service. house specialties: Paninis and soups are great. Recommendations: Minestrone soup, Muffuletta panini, and an espresso to finish. Comments: The help-yourself hand grater to add a grind of parmesan on your soup or salad is a nice touch. Maria’s neW Mexican kitchen 555 W. Cordova Rd. 983-7929. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoking/non-smoking. Patio. Major credit cards. $ Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: Rough wooden floors, hand-carved chairs and tables, and kiva fireplaces set the historical tone. house specialties: Freshly-made tortillas and green chile stew. Pork spareribs in a red chile sauce are a fifty-year-old tradition. Flan with burnt-sugar caramel sauce is the perfect ending. Comments: For Margaritas, Maria’s is the place. Mu du nOOdles 1494 Cerrillos Rd. 983-1411. Dinner Beer/wine. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Noodle House Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. house specialties: We love the salmon dumplings drizzledwith oyster sauce and the Malaysian Laksa—wild rice noodles in a red coconut curry sauce with baby bok choy. MuseuM hill café 710 Camino Lejo. 820-1776. Lunch/Sunday Brunch Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: All-American. Atmosphere: Cafeteria-style. house specialties: A wonderful and hearty soup selection, righteous salads, and sandwiches. We also liked the chicken enchiladas. Comments: Healthy, fresh food. O’keeffe café 217 Johnson St. 946-1065. Lunch/Dinner Beer/wine. Smoke-free. Patio.
| april 2009
Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Contemporary Southwest with a French flair. Atmosphere: The walls are dressed with photos of Ms. O’Keeffe herself. house specialties: A silky smooth foie gras served with orange muscat is an inviting appetizer. For your main, try the Northern New Mexico organic poquitero rack of lamb with black olive tapenade. Comments: Very nice wine selection. ó eatinG hOuse Highway 84/285 Pojoaque. 455-5065 Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Mexican, Native American, Spanish, French, and New Mexican. Atmosphere: Cozy and friendly. house specialties: Pueblo style Guacamole with two salsas; Pomegranate BBQ duck taquitos with sweet potato fries; and the tender rib-eye steak. Old hOuse at the Eldorado Hotel 309 W. San Francisco St. 988-4455. Dinner Full bar. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: American meets Southwestern. Atmosphere: Clubby and comfortable. house specialties: we suggest without reservation the Pan-seared Alaskan halibut with Yukon gold potato and lobster cake and pepper-tomato jam. For dessert, the warm liquid center chocolate cake with crème anglaise. Patsy’s neW yOrk Pizza 3470 Zafarano Rd. 424-7390 Lunch/Dinner Smoke-free. $$ Cuisine: Italian. Atmosphere: Casual. Celebrity photos on the walls. house specialties: A variety of excellent pizzas— from the New York basic to the classic Sicilian.Teriffic pastas and righteous salads and sandwiches. Comments: Love pizza? Patsy’s is your place. Pd Bean
2411 Cerrillos Rd. 473-9092. Breakfast/Lunch Smoke-free. $ Cuisine: American. Atmosphere: Coffee-house casual. house specialties: Smothered breakfast burrito, an array
red saGe restaurant and Bar 20 Buffalo Thunder Trail, at the Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino. 819-2056. Dinner/Bar menu. Full Bar. Smoke-free dining room. Major credit cards. $$$$ Cuisine: Modern fare with Native American, European, and Latin American influences. Atmosphere: An elegant and contemporary room. house specialties: To start, we recommend the roasted butternut squash soup or any of the beautifully prepared salads. For your main course, we suggest the succulent beef tenderloin; the perfectly cooked panroasted Chilean sea bass, or the Pueblo Garden vegetarian plate: red quinoa and wild rice stuffed ancho. Try a side order of the out-of-this-world bacon mashed potatoes. For dessert, go for the ovenfired blackberry cobbler with maple cream. Comments: Excellent selection of wine and imported beers. Mark Miller has done it again! riO chaMa steakhOuse 414 Old Santa Fe Trail. 955-0765. Sunday Brunch/Lunch/Dinner/Bar menu. Full Bar. Smoke-free dining rooms. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: American Steakhouse/New Mexican. Atmosphere: Pueblo-style adobe with vigas and plank floors. house specialities: USDA Prime steaks and prime rib. Haystack fries and corn bread with honey butter. Other recommendations: For dessert, we love the chocolate pot. ristra 548 Agua Fria St.. 982-8608. Dinner/Bar Menu Full Bar. Smoke-free. Patio Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Southwestern with French flair. Atmosphere: Elegant new bar with an extensive bar menu, sophisticated and comfortable dining rooms, a charming outdoor patio. house specialties: Mediterranean mussels in chipotle and mint broth; ahi tuna tartare; squash blossom tempura; pistachio-crusted Alaskan halibut; and achiote grilled Elk tenderloin. Comments: Ristra offers an extensive wine list, and won the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence in 2006. s an f ranciscO s t . B ar & G rill 50 E. San Francisco St. 982-2044. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: As American as apple pie. Atmosphere: Casual with art on the walls. house specialties: At lunch, do try the San Francisco St. hamburger on a sourdough bun; the grilled salmon filet with black olive tapenade and arugula on a ciabatta roll; or the grilled yellowfin tuna nicoise salad with baby red potatoes. At dinner, we like the tender and flavorful twelve-ounce New York Strip steak, served with chipotle herb butter, or the Idaho Ruby Red Trout served with grilled pineapple salsa. Comments: Visit their sister restaurant at Devargas Center. s antacafé 231 Washington Ave. 984-1788. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoking/non-smoking. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Contemporary Southwestern. Atmosphere: Minimal, subdued, and elegant. house specialties: For starters, the crispy calamari with lime
dipping sauce will never disappoint. Favorite dinner entrées include the perfectly cooked grilled rack of lamb; pan-seared salmon with olive oil crushed new potatoes and creamed sorrell; miso marinated halibut with lemongrass. Comments: If available, you must order the tempura shrimp. Appetizers at cocktail hour is always a lot of fun. s aveur 204 Montezuma St. 989-4200. Breakfast/Lunch No alcohol. Smoke-free. Patio. Visa/MasterCard. $ Cuisine: A mix of French and American. Atmosphere: Cafeteria-style service for salad bar and soups. Deli case with meats and desserts. Sit down at small tables in very casual rooms, elbow to elbow. Bustling with locals every day. house specialties: Excellent salad bar and sandwiches. s ecOnd s treet B reWery 1814 Second Street. 982-3030. Lunch/Dinner Beer/wine. Smoke-free inside. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Simple pub grub and brewery. Atmosphere: Casual and very friendly. house specialties: The beers, which are brewed on the premise are outstanding, especially when paired with beer-steamed mussels; beer-battered calamari; burgers; perfectly crunchy fish and chips; spicey green chile stew or the truly great grilled bratwurst. Comments: A kid-friendly place. t he s hed 113 1/ 2 E. Palace Ave. 982-9030. Lunch/Dinner Beer/wine. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: The Shed—a local institution; some say a local habit)—is housed in an adobe hacienda. house specialties: Try the stacked red or green chile cheese enchiladas with blue corn tortillas. Comments: Check out their sister restaurant, La Choza, for the same classic New Mexican food. s hOhkO c afé 321 Johnson St. 982-9708. Lunch/Dinner Sake/Beer. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Authentic Japanese Cuisine. Atmosphere: Sushi bar as well as table dining. house specialties: Softshell crab tempura; hamachi kama; sesame seafood salad, and Kobe beef with Japanese salsa. Comments: Chat with the knowledgeable and friendly sushi chefs. s teaksMith at e l G anchO Old Las Vegas Highway. 988-3333. Dinner Full bar. Smoke-free dining room. Major credit cards $$$ Cuisine: American. Atmosphere: Family restaurant with full bar and lounge. house specialties: Aged steaks and lobster. Try the great pepper steak with Dijon cream sauce. Comments: They know steak here. Good pour at the bar. t he t eahOuse 821 Canyon Rd. 992-0972. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Wine/Beer Fireplace. 7 days. 8:30 am-9 pm. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Farm-to-table. Atmosphere: house specialties: Salmon Benedict w/poached eggs, Gourmet Cheeser sandwich, Polenta plate,soups with vegan base, fresh salads, and many organic teas and other drinks. Comments: Organic ingredients—from farm to fork. t ia s O P h ia ’ s 210 W. San Francisco St. 983-9880. Breakfast/Lunch No alcohol. Smoking/non-smoking. Major credit cards. $ Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: The “real deal.” Old wooden booths or tables. house specialties: Green chile stew (known to cure the common cold). Enormous breakfast burritos stuffed with bacon, potatoes, chile, and cheese. t r at t O r ia n O s t r a n i 304 Johnson Street. 983-3800. Dinner Wine/Beer. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$$ Cuisine: Regional dishesfromNorthern
Italy. Atmosphere: A 1887 renovated adobe with a great bar. house specialties: Begin with the chickpea soup with sweet Italian sausage or the radicchio salad with blue goat cheese dressing and candied pistachios, or the foie gras. For your main course, we recommend the braised duck with pappardelle or the saffron cannelloni with beef ragu and asiago. Comments: A comprehensive European wine list with over four-hundred selections. Winner of Gourmet magazine’s “Top 50 U.S. Restaurants.” And in 2009, Frommer ’s Guide included Trattoria Nostrani as one of the “Top 500 Restaurants in the World.” t r e e h O u s e c a f é & P a s t ry s h O P at Plants of the Southwest 3095 Agua Fria St. 474-5543. Breakfast and lunch Closed Monday Smoke-free. Garden tables Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Using only organic ingredients. Atmosphere: Light, bright, and cozy. house Specialties: Ultra-fresh Farmer ’s Market salad; soup and sandwich of the day; quiche, tart, and the wonderful vegetable quesadilla. Recommendations: We suggest the delicious tortilla soup—crunchy, warm and cozy; the mile-high quiche has a flaky whole wheat crust. The cakes, cupcakes, brownies, scones, muffins just can’t be beat. Comments: Friendly and attentive wait staff. tuliPs 222 N. Guadalupe St. 989-7340 Dinner Wine/Beer. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Whimsical gourmet. Atmosphere: Intimate. Two small rooms with beautiful art on the walls. house specialties: Lobster spring rolls, organic chicken liver pate, and marinated venison tenderloin. Comments: For dessert, go for the award-winning airy Grand Marnier infused chocolate mousse “tulip.” v a n e s s i e O f s a n ta f e 434 W. San Francisco St. 982-9966. Dinner Full bar. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: American. Atmosphere: Piano bar and oversize everything, thanks to architect Ron Robles. house specialties: New York steak and Australian rock lobster tail. Comments: Great appetizers, generous drinks. vinaiGrette 709 Don Cubero Alley. 820-9205 Lunch/Dinner Beer and Wine. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Farm-to-table. Atmosphere: Light, sunny, cheerful, and welcoming. house specialties: The Nutty Pear-fessor salad with grilled bosc pears, bacon, toasted pecans, and Gorgonzola, served over a bed of greens, and the Chop Chop salad are utterly fantastic. Wonderful soups, sanwiches, and sides round out the menu. Try the apple pie for dessert—it will not disappoint. Comments: Owner Erin Wade grows organic greens at her Nambe farm, delivering the freshness and quality that farm-to-table slow food promises. zia diner 326 S. Guadalupe St. 988-7008. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoking/non-smoking. Pato. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: American as Mom’s apple pie. Atmosphere: Down home and casual. house specialties: Absolutely the best meat loaf in town, served with real mashed potatoes and gravy; a variety of of hamburgers and cheeseburgers; and the “real deal” chicken-fried chicken. Comments: You will love the hot fudge sundae. And, great pasteries are available for take-out.
Advertise in The Rose Darland 577-8728 (mobile) Sheri Mann 989-1214
The magazine 424-7641
THE
MAGAZINE
|23
DANA WA L DON PH OTOGRAP HER “Portraits taken with the eye of an Artist and the Love of a Mother”
505.660.6442 images on linen, silk, canvaswww.danawaldon.com and archival watercolor paper 5 0 5 . 6 6 0 . 6 4 4 2 o n l iwww.GalisteoBasinPhotoProject.com n e p o r t f o l i o w w w. d a n aw a l d o n . c o m
ART OPENINGS
APRIL
ART OPENINGS
friday, april 3 arte Bella cOnteMPOrary art, Don Gaspar and E. Alameda St., Santa Fe. 8425287. Small is Beautiful: 12” x 12” or smaller egg-tempera paintings, encaustic works, and collages by Eliza M. Schmid. 5-8 pm. arthaus66, 6320 Linn Ave. NE, Suite C, Alb. 505-255-0872. Illumine: installation by Lena Bartula and Karen Wight. 5-9 pm. BriGht rain Gallery, 206 1/2 San Felipe NW, Alb. 505-843-9176. Jeremy Couillard: Interiors and Landscapes Landscapes: new paintings. 6-9 pm. exPO neW W MexicO, New Mexico Fairgrounds, Hispanic Arts Building, Alb. 505-260-9977. MasterWorks of New Mexico 2009: juried fine art show. 5-8 pm. 2009 harWOO ar d art center, 1114 7th St. NW, Alb. 505-242-6367. Here and There: exhibit of CNM student work. Figure, Abstraction, Myth: new work by Evey Jones, Benjamin Myth Forgey, and Barry McCormick. 6-8 pm. institute Of aMerican indian arts MuseuM, 108 Cathedral Pl., Santa Fe. 983-8900. BFA Exhibition: showcase of work by students. Curated by Native arts scholar and writer Margaret Archuleta. 5-7 pm.
Palette cOnteMPOrary art and craft, 7400 Montgomery NE, Suite 22, Alb. 505-855-7777. Color Play: new glass forms by Dorothy Hafner. 5-8 pm. s taBles G allery, 133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos. 575-770-1199. Beyond the Fringe: fine fiber artwork that is nonFringe functional and non-wearable. 5-7 pm. s uMner & d ene, 517 Central Ave. NW, Alb. 505-842-1400. Robert Redus Abstracts: paintings by Robert Redus. Abstracts 5-9 pm. tOuchinG s tOne G allery, 539 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe. 988-8072. Contemporary Bizen Ceramics Ceramics: woodfired ceramics by Hiroyuki Wakimoto. 5-7 pm. visiOnes G allery, Working Classroom, 115 Gold St., Alb. 505-724-4777. The Path Between Life and Fiction Fiction: show documenting the life of Mexican writer, diplomat, and critic, Alfonso Reyes. New work: display of miniature encaustics by work Charles Castillo. 6-8 pm. saturday, april 4 BackrOad O Oad Pizza, 1807 2nd St., Santa Fe. 955-9055. Speaking Out!: paintings by Eliza M. Schmid. 5-7 pm.
ffriday, april 10
saturday, aturday, april 18
center fOr cOnteMPOrary arts, Spector Ripps Project Space, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe. 982-1338. Collect: Inside 8: wall work that fits within an 8-inch cube. 5-7 pm.
arthaus66, 6320 Linn Ave. NE, Suite C, Alb. 505-255-0872. Illumine: installation by Lena Bartula and Karen Wight. 5-9 pm.
GOldleaf Gallery, 627 W. Alameda St., Santa Fe. 988-5005. The Benefit to Benefit the Benefitors Benefitors: 90% of the sales go directly to the artists. 5:30-7:30 pm. PrestOn cOnteMPOrary art center, 1755 Avenida de Mercado, Mesilla. 575523-8713. The Nylon Show: sculpture, photography, mixed media, video and installation pieces. 2009 Spring Exhibition: Dan Burkholder, photography; Jeffrey Curto, photography; Elizabeth Galvin, painting; Jed Schlegel, ceramic sculpture; and Richard Warrington, steel sculpture. 6:30-8:30 pm.
dWiGht hackett PrO rOjects rO Ojects, 2879 All Trades Road, Santa Fe. 474-4043. Solo Show: paintings and posters by Rudolf Baranik. 3-5 pm. sunday, april 19 Placitas artists series, Las Placitas Presbyterian Church, 7 Paseo de San Antonio, Placitas. 505-867-8080. Untitled: work by Dorothy Bowen, Patricia Forbes, and Jeffrey J. Schmitt. 1:30-3 pm. friday, april 24
friday april 17
hunter kirkland cOnteMPOrary, 200 CAnyon rd., sAntA ntA Fe. 982-0011. ntA Reclamation: mixed media on wood panels Reclamation by Joan Bohn. 5-7 pm.
BriGht rain Gallery, 206 1/2 San Felipe NW, Alb. 505-843-9176. Jeremy Couillard: Interiors and Landscapes Landscapes: new paintings. 5-8 pm.
judy yOuens Gallery, 826 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 466-3357. Feminine Essence: group show focused on femininity. 5-7 pm.
WilliaM sieGal Gallery, 540 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. 820-3300. Parkinson’s: A Journey Through Time and Space Space: paintings and digital composite images by Bunny Conlon and Eddie Dayan. 5-7 pm.
llO lOyd Oyd kiva neW eW Gallery, institute Of aMerican indian arts MuseuM, 108 Cathedral Pl., Santa Fe. 983-8900. New Work by Recent Grads: Melissa Melero, Taketo Yamashita, Grads Jacqueline Smith, and others. 4-7 pm.
leW eWallen cOnteMPOrary, 129 W. Palace Ave., Santa Fe. 988-8997. Pattern, Rhythm and Process: paintings by Brad Ellis. 5:30-7:30 pm. Process ManitOu Galleries, 123 W. Palace Ave., Santa Fe. 986-0440. Spring Group Show featuring Z.Z. Wei Wei: exhibit with gallery artists. 5-7:30 pm. MariPOsa sa Gallery, 3500 Central Ave. SE, Alb. 505-268-6828. Untitled: paintings by Sarah Siltala, Mary Thomas, and Kenyon Thomas. Upstairs gallery: paintings by Rachel Popowcer. 5-8 pm. Matrix fine art, 3812 Central Ave. SE, Suite 100-B, Alb. 505-268-8952. Pop Art Revisited: paintings by David Koch and Revisited Stacy Hawkinson. 5-8 pm. neW W GrOunds Print WOrkshOP & Gallery, 3812 Central Ave. SE, Suite 100-B, Alb. 505-268-8952. Mapping Efforts: mixedmedia prints by Barbara Shapiro. 5-8 pm. OPen Mind sPace P , 404 San Felipe St. NW, Suite C-1, Alb. 505-259-3566. Grasses Being: oil and graphite on paper by Alan Being Paine Radebaugh. 6-8 pm.
| april 2009
Parkinson’s: A Journey Through Time and Space: digital composite images by Eddie Dayan (left) and paintings by Bunny Conlon at William Siegal Gallery, 540 South Guadalupe Sreet, Santa Fe. Reception: Friday, April 17, 5-7 pm. continued on page 28
The magazine | 25
WHO SAID THIS???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
“It’s funny how life has a life of its own.”
A: Joel Cymrot B: Woody Allen C: Shoes Kramer D: Chris Rock E: George Carlin
HERE’S THE DEAL! $500 full-page ads in the May issue for artists without gallery representation in New Mexico. Deadline: Wednesday, April 15. 505-424-7641
OUT & ABOUT
Photos: Mr. Clix, Dana Waldon, Linda Carfagno &
Jennifer Esperanza
ART OPENINGS
Meyer east Gallery, 225 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 983-1657. Works on Paper: lithography, woodcuts, aquatints, and pastels by Elmer Schooley. 5-7 pm.
selBy B fleetWOO By leet d Gallery, 600 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 992-8877: The Underbelly of Clouds: multimedia work by Christina Chalmers. 5-7 pm. Artist talk Sat., April 25, 1:30 pm.
MOnrO nr e Gallery, 112 Don Gaspar, Santa nrO Fe. 992-0800. Mark Shaw: a retrospective exhibition of photographs by Mark Shaw, concurrent with the publication of the book Charmed By Audrey Audrey. 5-7 pm.
steW teWart Wart l. udall center fOr r MuseuM resOurces, 725 Camino Lejo, on Museum Hill. 982-6366 ext117. 2009 Pushpin Show: students and artists not represented in galleries display up to three pieces of work, all hung by pushpins. Artists and volunteers needed. Details: Call museumfoundation.org/ag. 6-9 pm.
neW eW MexicO O MuseuM Of art, 107 W. Palace Ave., Santa Fe. 476-5072. Intertwined: contemporary baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman Collection. 5:30-7:30 pm. sca cOnteMPOrary art, 524 Haines NW, Alb. 505-351-4067. the world is flat (driving in my car I think of you) you): works that showcase the disappearance of location by Paula Castillo, Todd Christensen, David Gunter, Adelita Sedillo, and John Updike, curated by Castillo. 5:30-7:30 pm.
West Southwest: Abq-LA Exchange: Exchange one exhibition in two cities. Reception: Saturday, April 4, 6-8pm at 516 Arts, 516 Central SW, Albuquerque.
WeBster cOllectiOns, 54 1/2 Lincoln Ave., Santa Fe. 954-9500. Zoe Danae Falliers + Robert Stivers Photography Photography, with other works by Michael Eastman, David Levinthal, and works from private collections, curated by Cyndi Conn. 5-7 pm.
institute Of aMerican indian arts PriMitive edGe Gallery, 83 Avan Nu Po Rd., Santa Fe. 424-5785. AFA/AA Graduation Exhibit: work by students. Curated by Exhibit student Joy Chrisjohn. 5-7 pm.
tthursday, april 30
friday, may 1 Blue rain Gallery, 130 Lincoln Ave., Santa Fe. 954-9902. Tony Abeyta and Richard Zane Smith: new work. 5-7 pm. Smith ki kiMO theater lOBBy OBB art Gallery, 423 Central Ave., NW. Alb. 505-768-3522. Natural Transformations Transformations: group show with work by Helga von Sydow Ancona, Colleen Kelley, Kathleen McCloud, and Robin Gay Wakeland. 6-8 pm. Matrix fine art, 3812 Central Ave. SE, Suite 100-B, Alb. 505-268-8952. Don’t Look: paintings and sculptures by Katrina Lasko. 5-8 pm. neW W GrOunds Print WOrkshOP & Gallery, 3812 Central Ave. SE, Suite 100B, Alb. 505-268-8952. Peep Show: gravures by Diane Alire. 5-8 pm. rOBin Gray desiGn, 511 Agua Fria St., Santa Fe. 995-8411. Faces of Freedom: The RugMark Foundation Artists Artists: photography by U. Roberto Romano documenting rug weaving in India and Nepal. 5-8 pm. suMner ner & dene, 517 Central Ave. NW, Alb. 505-842-1400. New Mexico Skies: acrylic paintings by Angus Macpherson, pastels by Katherine Irish Henry, and oil paintings by Jeannie Sellmer. 5-9 pm. special interest alBuquerque cOnventiOn center, 401 2nd St. NW, Alb. 505-768-4575. 2009 Indian Arts & Crafts Association American Indian Art Market Market: contemporary and traditional American Indian Art. Sat., April 4. Details: iaca.com
Kate Moss does David Yurman. A trunk show of eyeglass frames by David Yurman at Acoma Optical, 3530 Zafarano Drive, Suite C-ß1, Santa Fe. Friday, April 3, 4-7 pm.
28| The magazine
Back street BistrO, 513 Camino De Los Marquez, Santa Fe. 982-3500. Shutter and Brush Fine Art at The Back Street Bistro Bistro:
photography-based images by Dave Robinson and mixed-media paintings by Teena Robinson. Through Sun., April 19. center fOr cOnteMPOrary arts, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe. 982-1338. 30-Year Anniversary: CCA celebrates its anniversary Anniversary with an evening honoring founders Bob Gaylor and Linda Klosky. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres followed by an art auction. Sat., April 18, 6:30 pm. Details: ccsantafe.org dWiGht hackett PrO rOjects Ojects, 2879 All Trades Rd., Santa Fe. 474-4043. Swimming Together: work by Toshi Miki. The Alphabet: work by Katherine Sehr. Through Sat., April 11. eiGht ht MOdern, 231 Delgado St., Santa Fe. 995-0231. Ronald Davis: paintings, in conjunction with Hopper Curates at the Harwood Museum in Taos. Through June 19. institute Of aMerican indian arts, 83 Avan Nu Po Rd., Santa Fe. 424-5785. Conjugal Visit Visit: the 2009 senior thesis show. Through Thurs., April 16. Lannan Foundation Writers-in-Residence Program presents Heid Erdrich and Eric Gansworth Gansworth: a reading with visiting writers Heid Erdrich and Eric Gansworth. Thurs., April 16, 7 pm. Info: 424-2365 or iaia.edu linda durhaM cOnteMPOrary art, 1101 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. 466-6600. Spring Forward Forward: group exhibit of works by gallery artists. Through May. llO lOy Oyd kiva neW W Gallery, iaia MuseuM, 108 Cathedral Pl., Santa Fe. 424-2351. Art with Heart Heart: silent and live art auction to benefit New Mexico Community AIDS Partnership. Fine art, festivities, party, raffle, wine, hors d’oeuvres, and live music. Art show: May 19-29; party and auction on Fri., May 29, 6-9 pm. Info: nmcap@yahoo.co nmcap@yahoo.com MuseuM Of indian arts and culture, Milner Plaza on Museum Hill, Santa Fe. 4765105. A River Apart: The Pottery of Cochiti and Santo Domingo Pueblos Pueblos: examination of the pottery traditions of the two Pueblos. Through June 2010. continued on page 28
april 2009 |
SAM SCOTT
Formal Critique for Painters
984-0039 for appointment
ART OPENINGS
neW eW MexicO O MuseuM Of art, 107 W. Palace Ave., Santa Fe. 476-5072. Pulling Strings: The Marionettes and Art of Gustave Baumann Baumann: exhibiti of more than sixty marionettes, as well as woodcuts and paintings. Through Sun., May 10.
group show of over fifty works by nine artists. Through Sun., May 10.
santa fe arts cOMMissiOn cOMMunity Gallery, Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy St., Santa Fe. 9556705. The Monoprint, Past and Present: two exhibits celebrating the tradition of monoprinting. What Seeds Have Borne: Current Monoprints from Local Artists Artists: juried exhibition of new works. Fri., April 24th through Fri., May 22.
st. jOhn’s cOlleGe art Gallery, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe. 984-6104. Faraday’s Gold: In Pursuit of the Very Small Small: lecture with Ryan D. Tweney, Fri., April 3, 8 pm. “The Power to Drive the World Today: Design Principles for Building Your Own International Organization Today”: lecture with Carter Page, Co-Founder and Partner of Global Energy Capital. Tues., April 7, 6 pm. “Kant’s Rational Being as Moral Being”: a lecture with Jay Smith, Fri., April 10, 8 pm. “Document and Time William Faulkner, Philip K. Dick, and the film Memento”: a discussion with Joshua Kates. Fri., April 17, 8 pm. “Pregnant Possibilities in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own”: a discussion with Keri Ames. Fri, April 24, 8 pm. Details: stjohnscollege.edu
santa fe clay, 1615 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. 984-1122. Thank You, T’ang: functional and sculptural work made from the world’s finest white clays. Through Sat., May 2.
tyBie satin MeMOrial rial Gallery, Santa Fe Public Library Main Branch, 145 Washington Ave., Santa Fe. 955-6792. Musical Paintings: new work by Pamela Faye. Through April.
santa fe cOMMunity cOlleGe, Visual Arts Gallery, 6401 Richards Ave., Santa Fe. 4281501. UNM Faculty Art: Santa Fe Community College School of Arts and Design hosts an exhibit showcasing the work of faculty members from the University of New Mexico Department of Art and Art History. Through Mon., April 27. Reading the Body Across Time Time: exhibit of photography by Siegfried Halus. Through Thurs., April 30.
university Of neW W MexicO, Conference Center, 1634 University Blvd., Alb. 505-291-9653. Eighteenth Albuquerque Antiquarian Book Fair Fair: thirty dealers from across the West sell used, out-of-print, and rare materials. Fri., April 3, 5-9 pm, Sat., April 4, 10 am-4 pm. Details: unm. edu/~alshal/aabf.html
santa fe art institute, Tipton Hall, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., Santa Fe. 424-5050. Dark Memory: Rudolf Baranik and Art about History History: panel discussion with David Craven, Jim Drobnick, Lucy Lippard, and May Stevens. Mon., April 6, 6 pm. sfai.org
santa fe cOMPlex, 632 Agua Fria St., Santa Fe. 216-7562. Manipulated Image: Woody and Steina Vasulka present and discuss their work. Fri., April 24, 8-10 pm. santa fe cOuncil On internatiOnal relatiOns, 1210 Luisa St., #6, Santa Fe. 982-4931. World Affairs Dinner Lecture: discussion of current U.S. affairs with Neal Rosendorf, PhD. Wed., April 22, 5 pm, at the Santa Fe Hilton, 100 Sandoval St. Call for details. santa fe PuBlic liBrary sOuthside Branch, 6599 Jaguar Dr., Santa Fe. John Allen: talk by biosphere scientist, philosopher, poet, and inventor of the Biosphere 2 Project. Wed., April 8, 6:30 pm. santa fe WOMan’s cluB, 1616 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe. 345-0237. 11th Contemporary Clay Fair Fair: sculpture and pottery created by twenty-nine artists, Sat., April 25 and Sun., April 26, 10 am-5 pm. site santa fe, 1606 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. 989-1199. Pretty Is As Pretty Does:
WheelW heel riGht ht MuseuM Of the aMerican indian, 704 Camino Lejo, Museum Hill, Santa Fe. 982-4636. From the Railroad to Route 66: The Native American Curio Trade in New Mexico Mexico: controversial story of the curio trade in New Mexico. Works by Chessney Sevier: copper-plate etchings and paintings Sevier from the artist’s collection. Through Sun., April 19. music cOlleGe Of santa fe, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., Santa Fe. 473-6282. Kalman Balogh: Hungarian cimbalom player. Mon., April 13, 8 pm. Thao Nguyen & the get down stay down: singer-songwriter. Sun., April 26, 8 down pm. Info: csf.edu lensic PerfOrMinG arts center, 211 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe. 988-1234. Ingrid Fliter: pianist. Thurs., April 9, 7:30 pm. Info: Fliter ticketssantafe.org neW W MexicO jazz WOrkshOP, 5500 Lomas Blvd. NE, Alb. 505-255-9798. 33rd Annual Guest Artist Series Series: music by Nnenna Freelon. Concert on Sat., April 4, 8 pm at The African American Performing Arts
2009 Spring Exhibition at Preston Contemporary Art Center, 1755 Avenida de Mercado, Mesilla. Above photo: Dan Burkholder. Reception: Friday, April 10, 6:30-8:30 pm
Center & Exhibit Hall, 310 San Pedro NE, Alb. Details: nmjazz.net OutPOst st PerfOrMance sPace P , 210 Yale SE, Alb. 505-268-0044. 20th Anniversary Spring Season 2009 2009: weekly musical performances through May. Schedule: outpostspace. org. Placitas artists series, Las Placitas Presbyterian Church, 7 Paseo de San Antonio, Placitas. 505-867-8080. Walt Michael & Company Company: Southern Appalachian, Celtic, and original compositions. Sun., April 19, 3 pm. Details: placitasarts.org/Concerts/ April/WaltMichael.html santa fe cOMPlex, 632 Agua Fria St., Santa Fe. 216-7562. The UUUUT Experiment: music made through unstructured improvisation, the use of found objects, extended techniques, laptops, robotics, etc. and a projected decibel meter. Sun., April 26, 3 pm. All instrumentalists are welcome. Details: philipmantione.com/uuuut.html performing arts p ja aMes a. little theater, 1600 Cerrillos Rd., Santa Fe. 986-6164. Invaders of the Heart, One Love Love: Pomegranate Productions and Mosaic Dance Company present an evening of East Indian, Middle Eastern, and Fusion dances. Fri. April 24 and Sat. April 25, 7 pm. mosaicdance.net site santa fe, 1606 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. 989-1199. TXTual Healing: A Performance by Paul Notzold Notzold: interactive performances that encourage the creation of dialogue through text messaging. Cosponsored by Linda Durham Contemporary Art. Tues. April 14, 6 pm. ccall for artists dailyPaintersaMerica.cOM is accepting submissions. Painters can submit up to three pieces of work no smaller than 4”x
4” and no larger than 12” x 12.” Winning entries included in the Daily Painters of New Mexico/Daily Painters America Salon Show at the SCA Contemporary Gallery in Alb., June 12-14, 6-9 pm. Info: 466-3624 or email: contest@ dailypaintersnewmexico.com Girls incOrPOrated Of santa fe accepting applications from fine artists and craftspeople to participate in the upcoming 37th annual Arts & Crafts Show, to be held Sat., Aug. 1, 9 am-6 pm, and Sun. Aug. 2, 9 am-5 pm. Application deadline: Wed., April 15. Details: Tiffani Moody, 9822042 or tmoody@girlsincofsantafe.org or girlsincofsantafe.org Matrix fine art accepting submissions for Photo NM 2009 2009. Deadline: Sun., April 5. Info: matrixfineart.com/matrixfineart/photo_nm_ show/photo_nm_prospectus.html neW W MexicO WOMen’s fOundatiOn Art Postcard Exhibition & Sale, Wish You Were Here. Entries due on or before Wed., April 1. Event Dates: May 7-14. Info: Lynda Rodolitz at 212-712-9191, lyndarodolitz@ earthlink.net, or Jill Heppenheimer at rusee@aol.com riO BravO rav fine art accepting submissions for Touched by Cancer, which will be on display April 18-May 8. Open to Sierra County residents, cancer survivors, friends, relatives and caregivers to anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer, or who has created art as an aid to work through being touched by a cancer experience. Info: Kathleen Smith, 575-740-1710. santa fe cOMPlex accepting submissions for Manipulated Image. These monthly screenings feature experimental short videos by artists that explore the innovative use of technology and software to manipulate images. Prospectus: sfcomplex.org
| april 2009
30| The magazine
10.
PREVIEWS
Mark Shaw, Dior Gown with Fur Hat, silver gelatin print, 14” x 11”, 1954
Mark Shaw: Photographs April 24 to June 28 Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe. 992-0800 Reception: Friday, April 24, 5 to 7 pm. A leading fashion photographer, Mark Shaw lived from 1922 until 1969 and worked for Harper’s Bazaar, Mademoiselle, as well as a host of other fashion magazines. He also shot twenty-seven covers for LIFE magazine and covered almost one hundred stories there over the course of sixteen years. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s he shot the couture collections for LIFE and was one of the first photographers to shoot fashion on the runways and backstage. While Shaw also photographed luminaries such as Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Melina Mercouri, Danny Kaye, Nico, Cary Grant, Pope Paul VI, Yves St. Laurent, and Coco Chanel, he is best known for his images of Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy and their family. He originally photographed them on assignment for LIFE when JFK was still a junior Senator—a strong friendship developed and later on Shaw became the family photographer during the White House years and documented the private glamour of America’s Camelot. Also of note in this exhibition are photographs of Audrey Hepburn, originally shot for LIFE in 1953. These had been lost after Shaw’s death and were only found in 2005. The exhibition opens with a reception attended by the photographer’s son, David Shaw, and runs concurrently with the publication of the new book Charmed By Audrey. In storage for almost forty years, Shaw’s work is finally being unearthed, archived, and made available for this exhibition. It is worth noting that the Mark Shaw Photographic Archive is currently the only solar and wind-powered photographic archive in the world. Housed in a straw bale building that operates entirely “off the electric grid,” the archive has employed green business practices since its founding and donates a portion of its profits to fund Earth Sweet Home, a non-profit educational program that teaches children and adults about sustainable living.
| april 2009
Elmer Schooley, Drunkard, lithograph, 14” x 9”, 1946
Elmer “Skinny” Schooley: Works on Paper April 24 to May 8 Meyer East Gallery, 225 Canyon Road, Santa Fe. 983-1657 Opening reception: Friday, April 24, 5 to 7 pm. Though primarily known as for his large landscape paintings, Elmer Wayne “Skinny” Schooley (1916-2007) began his career as a prolific printmaker who for fifty years created images of northern New Mexico in the form of woodcuts, lithographs, aquatints, pastels, and paintings. This exhibition features the largest collection ever compiled of his works on paper, offering viewers a fresh appreciation of the artist’s capabilities as a draftsman. The works were done primarily between the 1940s and the late 1960s while Schooley was teaching at New Mexico Highlands University. With little training in printmaking, Schooley created his lithographs on a second-hand, fifty-dollar press, working on them between the classes he taught—both to earn extra money and also to enjoy the artistic challenge of this art form. He subsequently founded a lithography workshop at the school and taught his students printmaking. The artist said that the greatest influence on his print work was Frederick O’Hara, a New Mexico printmaker who taught Schooley the importance of “listening to the material, of letting the material suggest to you what the finished work should look like.” In his diary, Schooley wrote, “I really got this, I owe everything on this to Fred O’Hara and to my willingness and my ability to follow his example.” This retrospective exhibition also features pastoral events and depictions of the artist’s wife, and the images that focus on issues such as racism and workers’ rights have a wonderful WPA feel to them.
Larry Bell, Figure 16, aluminum/sio on black Arches paper, 50” x 39”, 2008
Larry Bell: The Last Women The Encore Gallery, Taos Community Auditorium, 133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos. 575-758-2052 Through April 19 The Taos Center for the Arts presents an exhibition of Larry Bell’s latest work that will coincide with the opening of the Encore Gallery in the Taos Community Auditorium. As a geometric abstractionist and sculptor who is concerned with the viewer’s interactions with his work, Bell continues to present intriguing perceptual puzzles with The Last Women: eighteen images of delicately distant and abstracted figures with curvatures and highlights that suggest the female form. Sensual and seductive, these forms are subtly concealed, waiting to be teased out of the planes that Bell has created out of strips of metal-coated Mylar and laminated films. Each piece is built in the same fashion as Bell’s famed abstract mirages. To construct these latter, metals such as aluminum are melted and then vaporized, thus yielding a coating for the plastics and papers with which Bell then constructs his collages. By fusing the coated strips and films to canvases and then stretching them, in the artist’s words, “tapestries of woven light differentials result.”
THE magazine | 31
ZUNI MOUNTAIN LITHOGRAPHY WORKSHOP Bruce Lowney, well-known printmaker offers two summer sessions in stone lithography for two weeks each at his studio on 160 acres in the Zuni Mountains, southwest of Grants, NM. Lowney has taught stone lithography at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, UNM, and UT Austin. He has shown his work in Santa Fe, Taos, and Albuquerque since the 1970s. Each session is limited to two students who will print their own three-color edition. Materials are provided. B&B, campgrounds and cabins available. Camping on site is possible. Weekend points of interest: El Morro, Zuni Pueblo, and Gallup Flea Market. For information on the sessions, call (505) 783-4578 or email brucelowney@yahoo.com Website: www.brucelowneyart.com
ANDREW SMITH GALLERY, INC. Masterpieces of Photography
We’re moving! Come late April find us at our new location at 122 Grant Ave., next to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. We will consolidating both galleries to this location.
The House of Photography 122 Grant Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87501 • 505.984.1234 • www.AndrewSmithGallery.com
N AT I O N A L S P O T L I G H T
Martin Munkacsi, Jean Harlow, ca. 1937 Martin Munkacsi’s photographs celebrate the vitality and energy of modern life. From his early years as a sports photographer in Hungary to his pioneering photojournalism work in Berlin and revolutionary fashion shoots in New York City, Munkacsi dazzled the public with his boldly experimental approach, split-second timing, and radical cropping, inspiring photographers such as Richard Avedon and Henri Cartier-Bresson. In 1963, after seeing a Munkacsi photograph of three black children running into the sea, Avedon said, “He was the first. He did it first, and today the world of what is called fashion is peopled with Munkacsi’s babies, his heirs. It was my first lesson in photography, and there were many lessons after, all learned from Munkacsi, though I never met him. He brought a taste for happiness and honesty and a love of women to what was, before him, a joyless, lying art.” (Avedon felt Munkacsi was his predecessor and wrote a moving obituary on him in 1963.) In 1977 Cartier-Bresson said, “I saw a photograph of three black children running into the sea, and I must say that it is that very photograph which was for me the spark that set fire to the fireworks. It is only that one photograph which influenced me. There is in that image such intensity, spontaneity, such a joy of life, such a prodigy, that I am still dazzled by it even today.” Munkacsi is considered by many to be the co-founder of modern photojournalism and fashion photography, and had an immeasurable influence on twentieth-century photography in Europe and America. An exhibition of vintage and modern prints drawn from a collection of over 4,000 glass negatives—Munkacsi’s Lost Archive—will be on view through May 3 at the International Center for Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas, New York City. D | april 2009
THE magazine | 33
H I R S C H F I N E A RT Museum Quality Works on Paper For the New to Experienced Collector KENNETH ADAMS
BEATRICE MANDELMAN
MILTON AVERY
REGINALD MARSH JAN MATULKA
EMIL BISTTRAM LEONORA CARRINGTON HOWARD COOK CAROL CORELL
CARLOS MERIDA JUAN MIRABAL
MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS
ROBERT MOTHERWEL JANE PETERSON
RICHARD DIEBENKORN
LOUIS RIBAK
WERNER DREWES
DIEGO RIVERA
ALBERT LOOKING ELK
ROLPH SCARLETT
NORMA BASSETT HALL
LOUIS SCHANKER
E. MARTIN HENNINGS HANS HOFMANN
MILLARD SHEETS JOHN SLOAN
WOLF KAHN
RUFINO TAMAYO
GENE KLOSS
ABRAHAM WALKOWITZ
GINA KNEE
WILLIAM ZORACH
WIFREDO LAM
FRANCISCO ZUNIGA
Enrolling now for exciting SUMMER CLASSES at the FACT ARTbarn Studio 1516 Pacheco Street, Santa Fe Each week-long session will include supplies and nutritious snacks. Cost: $225 per session. Scholarships are available. Registration information available at www.factsantafe.org or by phone at 992-2787
BY APPOINTMENT 505.988.1166 LITERALLY STEPS OFF CANYON ROAD
www.hir schfinear t.com
FACT artists being creative in ARTclub class. Photo: Don Usner 2009
2009 Summer Art Classes 992-2787
Week-long Workshops Ages 5-7 M-F 8:30am-Noon June 8-June 12 June 29-July 3 July 20-July 24 Ages 8-10 M-F 1:30-5pm June 15-June 1 July 6-July 10 July 27-July 31 Ages 11-14 M-F 1:30-5pm June 22-June 26 July 13-July 17 Aug 3-Aug 7
Whether you’re an experienced collector or buying your first work of art, the art market can seem daunting and inaccessible. But with a grasp of the fundamentals, prospective investors need not be intimidated. There are several ways to buy art: straight out of the artist’s studio, primary or retail art (from a gallery), and secondary, or resale art from a private art dealer. The secondary art market consists of private dealers, auction houses, museums, and private customers. Private art dealers pride themselves on their scholarly expertise, connections, and integrity, and function on behalf of their clients for the disposal of single works or entire collections with the objective of maximizing returns. THE magazine talked with three private art dealers in Santa Fe, posing the same questions to each.
Photograph by Dana Waldon
PRIVATE art dealers
F E AT U R E
the primary market is set by the gallery and the artist and what
later. Now, with the advent of the Internet, the art market
the market can bear. Once the artwork is sold by the gallery to
has become very international, so when one country is in a
somebody else and up for sale again, the price is whatever the
recession, another country can buy. In 2008 and now in 2009,
new buyer is willing to pay. It is then up to the auction houses,
I am selling more art in Europe, despite the fact that they have
brokers, art dealers, art buyers, who determine the price.
a recession too. The success of an art dealer is also dependant
Of course, interest and the price are also influenced by
on what is in the inventory.
art critics, museums, curators, art magazines, in short the
Kornelia Tamm Fine Arts
www.tammfinearts.com | (505) 989-3255
exposure of the artist. And that price can go up and go
Since the art market booms during times of free trade
down, quickly, depending on the demand of the artist.
and greater prosperity, what is your prognosis for the
Retail is everything unless one is a dealer and gets a net price.
art market in 2009? Free Trade? There is still free trade, there
Whether one buys from a gallery or a private dealer does not
always is. I would say that 2009 is going to be tough and it will
make a difference, it is still retail. The fluctuation of the price
take a while for the market to recuperate. Many of the artists,
is determined first by the economy and then by whether the
who were strong in the eighties, never came back strong,
artist is in favor or not by everybody who has anything to say
including Rauschenberg, Johns, Rosenquist, Stella, Marden, and
in the art world. When buying in the secondary market, the
Estes. And today, when the market recuperates, that does not
Kornelia Tamm deals in contemporary American and European
prices can be lower or higher compared to what the piece
mean that the artists that were hot in the last ten years or so
prints and multiple objects by artists of international renown.
costs before it became part of the secondary market.
will come back strong again too. It is amazing how quickly taste
Among these artists are Jim Dine, Richard Estes, Willem de
changes and how the darlings in the art market become boring
Kooning, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Kiki Smith, George Segal,
What is the strategy for a person who buys art only as
and uninteresting to some. We have to brace ourselves for a
and Frank Stella.
an investment? Buying art only as an investment is a bad
difficult year, lower our expectations, which I am sure most
strategy—not to be recommended, and certainly not by me.
have already done, and just try to survive.
What constitutes a serious collector, and what are the
Buying art as an investment is only for people who know both
advantages of working with a private art dealer versus a
the art market and Wall Street very well. Never blame your art
retail art gallery? A serious collector is somebody interested
dealer if the value of a work of art goes down in a bad market,
in art for art’s sake and is a very informed person, one with a
only blame your dealer when the price goes up!!! Buy what
vision, an idea, and an unstoppable goal. There are very few
you like is what I recommend. As an art buyer, do not buy art
art collectors—most are art buyers, some of them consider
to make money, but to enjoy the art for as long as you can.
themselves collectors. I deal mostly with art buyers. Once their walls are full, they stop buying. In general, there are no
Define the health of the secondary art market in today’s
advantages to choosing to deal either with a gallery or an art
economy, and how will you avoid the mistakes of the
dealer. Good galleries are also brokers/art dealers. Is there an
art-market crash of 1990—particularly the possibility of
advantage to being an art dealer as opposed to a gallerist? Yes,
paralyzing the sale of artists’ work by refusing to lower
very much so, at least to me. I can work by myself, I have no
prices? Everybody suffers in the art market when the market
overhead, and with the Internet and my Blackberry I can do
crashes, including the artists. In 1990 I became more careful
business anywhere I am without being stuck in a gallery space.
and stopped buying. But I also stopped selling and hibernated for ten years, doing a lot of other things than art dealing.
What determines the true value of a work of art? What
The brokers suffered, because they had nothing in their
drives prices up or down in the secondary market, and
inventory and had no clue what to do next. The galleries
what is the percentage of the price difference between
suffered because they still had their overhead but could not sell
buying in the secondary market and buying retail? The
anymore. Many at that time stopped working in the art field.
true value of art is what one pays for it. The market value in
I maintained my inventory and started selling again a few years
Kiki Smith
continued on page 36
| april 2009
The magazine |35
Photograph by Dana Waldon
Diego Rivera
Hans Hoffman
However, a private dealer often has a stronger relationship
beautiful art by well-known artists. I tell customers “Don’t
with the people he works with in helping them build their
buy art as an investment, buy what you like. If it turns out
collection or in finding works by specific artists than a gallery
to be a good investment, great.”
does. Generally this dealer will have more time to service his buyers/clients since he isn’t dealing with as many people as one
Define the health of the secondary art market
does in running a retail business.
in today’s economy, and how will you avoid the mistakes of the art market crash of 1990, particularly
Hirsch Fine Art
www.hirschfineart.com | (505) 988-1166
What determines the true value of a work of art? What
the possibility of paralyzing the sale of artists’ work
drives prices up or down in the secondary market and
by refusing to lower prices? Not all private dealers deal
what is the percentage of the price difference between
in the secondary art market. Some deal in contemporary
buying in the secondary market and buying retail?
living artists whose work is new to the market. I only deal
The true value of a work of art is its market value. For most
in art that has been purchased before and now is up for
Jay Rosenbaum has been an art dealer for fifteen years,
contemporary living artists the value is what someone will pay
resale—the secondary market. The sale of this art has
specializing in works on paper by well-known artists of the
for it in a gallery. For the deceased artist in museums and with
been affected by today’s economy, but not so drastically
early twentieth century. These works include drawings,
auction records, what someone is willing to pay for a piece
as new art because most of the artists I sell are deceased
watercolors, pastels, and signed and numbered graphics.
is still important, but a private dealer has more guidelines in
and are known commodities—“blue chip” artists. Yet their
Much of the art is focused on Southwest artists, the New
pricing because there are auction prices and the prices other
prices have suffered too. Since the artists I sell are no
York School from the 1920s to the 1940s, and Latin American
dealers in the secondary market are asking for a particular
longer living and I own the work I sell, my refusal to lower
masters. Rosenbaum does not consider himself to be an “art
artist’s work. Prices are driven up or down by artists who
prices—if that is what I choose to do—affects nothing but
broker,” since he buys almost all the art he sells and only
are in favor and sought after and those who are not. Also the
my own pocketbook. I do sometimes lower prices, but
occasionally takes pieces on consignment.
general economy has an effect. However, I have found that the
that depends on many factors.
art I sell has been generally impervious to the rise and fall of What constitutes a serious collector and what are the
the stock market until now—a time when we are in a financial
Since the art market booms during times of free
advantages of working with a private art dealer versus a
crisis and few people are buying anything. If one is talking
trade and greater prosperity, what is your prognosis
retail art gallery? A serious art collector is a person focused
about buying comparable work by a particular artist, the
for the art market in 2009? Since I do not sell art
on one or more specific areas of art and who does not buy
difference in prices can be negligible. The same work might be
internationally, free trade issues with tariffs and such do
randomly. Serious collectors are more knowledgeable about
somewhat less expensive from a private dealer than a gallery
not apply to me. However, greater prosperity is a huge
the artists they are interested in than the general public is.
owner because of the private dealer’s lack of overhead. But
factor since art is considered to be a luxury item to most
They are often trying to build or add to a collection of a specific
this is not necessarily always the case, since many private
people. Even in these times there are many people like
artist, a specific nationality of art, or a specific time period.
dealers know what the art is worth and only have top quality
me who are passionate about art and need to surround
Frequently the three go together. There are not necessarily
work by a given artist.
themselves with it. And they will always buy. Since I don’t
any advantages to working with a private dealer since there
think the prognosis for the economy in general in 2009
are many retail art gallery owners who are knowledgeable
What is the strategy for a person who buys art only
is very good (though I hope I’m wrong), I think the art
about what they sell and provide great personal service.
for an investment? I don’t sell investment art. I sell
market will continue to be slow.
Photograph by Clodagh McConville
F E AT U R E
Cynthia Drennon Fine Arts
www.artnet.com/gallery/325/cynthia-drennonfine-arts-inc.html | (505) 820-7855
careers. Lastly, there is a direct correlation between the
early to make a determination, but there are always
eventual rise in price of an artist’s unique works and how
people with money who are willing to buy and this is a
that appreciation will bring along the prices of the prints
time when many people need to sell. We are seeing some
and multiples by that artist. Current examples are: Vik
unique opportunities for investments at the moment.
Muniz and Damien Hirst. This is a result of interested
The mistakes that were made in 1990 were a lesson to us
collectors who are unable to afford the unique works by
all. Many people paid astronomical prices for unproven
an artist and therefore they purchase the multiples they
artists, or paid too much for well-known artists from
can afford for enjoyment and investment. You will not
un-vetted sellers who came onto the scene for a brief
find the same works on the retail market that you can
moment with no credentials, resulting in a greed-driven
find in the secondary market. The price of an artwork
frenzy from both sellers and buyers. As secondary dealers
depends on how rare or valuable the resale piece is.
we do not control the artists’ markets in the same way
Often you pay less on the secondary market. However,
galleries do. We have the freedom to sell at any price that
at times you will pay the market price as the work is
a seller and buyer can agree upon. Our concern is focused
Cynthia Drennon and her daughter, Bri Drennon, sell
not available elsewhere or is so desirable that there are
on the collectors and their collections, and hopefully this
established artists’ works. The Drennons have been in
multiple buyers.
benefits the artists in the long run by placing their art and
business since 1986—two generations of art dealers.
giving them further visibility.
Their mode of operation tends to be conservative and
What is the strategy for a person who buys art only
they advise their clients carefully, so that they are able to
as an investment? We always tell our clients to purchase
Since the art market booms during times of free
make well-informed decisions.
the very best piece they can afford at any given time—they
trade and greater prosperity, what is your prognosis
are better served to purchase one really fine artwork than
for the art market in 2009? Our economy is in crisis
What constitutes a serious collector, and what are
three or four less expensive pieces. Save your money, know
and this will affect the art market as well. I expect art
the advantages of working with a private art dealer
the market, and work with a reputable dealer who cares
sales will slow down along with everything else until
versus a retail art gallery? There are two kinds of
about building your collection, not just making a sale.
our economy stabilizes. Those collectors who either
serious collectors: those who buy what they love and
had good advisors or were wise enough to buy better
those who buy art as a commodity. The first collector
Define the health of the secondary art market
works by better artists still own works of value. Those
purchases art mainly for the enjoyment they receive from
in today’s economy, and how will you avoid
who can afford to wait out the current crisis will benefit
living with it rather than for its resale value. Over time
the mistakes of the art market crash of 1990,
from long-term appreciation and those who can afford to
that collector will become knowledgeable about the art
particularly the possibility of paralyzing the sale of
buy will find they have some exceptional opportunities
market in general and spend their leisure time enjoying
artists’ work by refusing to lower prices? It is too
available to them. D
art. The commodity collector may also love art, but tends to invest greater sums of money. They recognize that they can put their monies into stocks and bonds, but often prefer to diversify and buy important artworks that will appreciate while they can enjoy living with their art. For the serious collector, the advantages to working with a private dealer is that because they are not tied to their own inventory, they can offer a wider selection of material. Regardless, it is always beneficial for a collector to work with a professional who understands how to help them shape their collection for maximum long-term value and importance. What determines the true value of a work of art? What drives prices up or down in the secondary market and what is the percentage of the price difference between buying in the secondary market and buying retail? The first time a work of art is sold on the primary market, the artist and their dealer determine the primary price. If the art is later resold the value is determined by many factors, including the quality of the artwork, similar works on the market at the time, auction comps, the condition of the piece, and the economy. Several important factors: how prolific an artist is, supply and demand, past and current auction records, how well-known an artist has become globally or regionally, and how the primary galleries have handled their artists’ David Hockney
| april 2009
THE magazine |37
THEfapril09.qxd:Layout 1
3/18/09
11:04 AM
Page 1
Santa Fe Art Institute MEMORY: Shadow & Light – Art as individual/ collective memory
Dark Memory: Rudolf Baranik and Art about History 4/6 Panel Discussion with David Craven Lucy Lippard, May Stevens.
6pm Tipton Hall
4/16 – April Open Studio Come in and see what our artists and writers have been doing. 5:30pm SFAI April Bookarts Workshops
4/23 - 24 – Julianna Coles – Revisionary Journaling 4/25 – Valerie Roybal – Idiosyncratic Bookbinding 4/26 – Carol Tyroler – Paste Paper for Kids Closing reception at 4pm on Sunday 4/26
WWW.SFAI.ORG, 505- 424 5050, INFO@SFAI.ORG, SANTA FE ART INSTITUTE, 1600 ST.MICHAELS DRIVE, SANTA FE NM 87505 | THE SANTA FE ART INSTITUTE EXPLORES THE INTERCONNECTIONS OF COMTEMPORARY ART AND SOCIETY THROUGH ARTIST AND WRITER RESIDENCIES, PUBLIC LECTURES AND WORKSHOPS, EXHIBITIONS, & EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH THIS PROGRAM PARTIALLY FUNDED BY THE CITY OF SANTA FE ARTS COMMISION AND THE 1% LODGER’S TAX AND BY NEW MEXICO ARTS, A DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
Faculty Exhibition
University of New Mexico r Department of Art and Art History at Santa Fe Community College’s School of Arts and Design
Thursday, March 26 through Monday, April 27 This exhibition is part of a collaborative project between UNM’s Department of Art and Art History and SFCC’s School of Arts and Design. Students interested in taking UNM art classes at SFCC can meet with a UNM adviser from 4 to 6 p.m., Wednesday, April 15 in Room 754, SFCC. Learn more. Call (505) 428-1501.
Exhibiting Artists
*Steve Barry, top Michael Cook *Jason DeMarte, right Elen Feinberg Bill Gilbert Kathleen Jessie Patrick Manning Yoshiko Shimano Jim Stone Mary Tsiongas Robin Ward *Baochi Zhang, left
Visual Arts Gallery Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 6401 Richards Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87508 r www.sfccnm.edu
RELECTIONS FROM CHICAGO
Ensuring that WomEn’s achiEvEmEnts BEcomE a PErmanEnt Part of our cultural hEritagE By judy
chicaGO
Photograph by Donald Woodman
IN 2007,
almost thirty years after its completion and worldwide exhibition
My ongoing involvement with The Dinner Party can also be traced back to my own
tour, The Dinner Party was permanently installed in a specially
discovery of the history embodied by the piece. Five hundred years before me, a writer
built space at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum.
named Christine de Pisan constructed a biography of women that contained many of
Two years prior to the opening, I was at work with a team of art educators to develop a
the same women we had to research all over again because their contributions had
K-12 curriculum based upon The Dinner Party. Some readers might wonder why I remained
either been ignored, overlooked, or marginalized. I was determined that this history
involved for so many years in a work of art that I had ostensibly completed in 1979.
not be lost again. Moreover, the knowledge I gained through my years of research
My original goal with The Dinner Party was to educate a wide and diverse audience about
empowered and strengthened me—a process I saw repeated by everyone who
women’s rich and largely unknown heritage—a goal that was achieved by the fact that over
worked on The Dinner Party, as well as those hundreds of thousands who viewed it,
one million people viewed the work during its exhibition tour. However, from the beginning,
worked to get it exhibited, or endeavored to achieve its permanent housing; learning
my intention was that the piece be permanently housed as a way of contributing to the end
women’s history literally changed their lives.
of the erasure, which has eclipsed the contributions of too many women. This aim eluded
With The Dinner Party’s permanent housing, I realized that a K-12 curriculum could
me for many decades. It was with great joy that I was able to see The Dinner Party in its
provide guidelines for teachers while also ensuring that future generations—many of
permanent home because, until that moment, the piece was not finished for me.
whom might never have the opportunity to actually view The Dinner Party—would
Over the years, many K-12 teachers had written to say that they were using The Dinner
have access to the deeply inspiring historic information it conveys. This curriculum
Party in their classrooms. Although I was gratified that the work was being studied by students,
reflects the research and classroom practice of over fifty art educators who attended
I was not always happy with the projects described by the teachers. One example will suffice:
a Dinner Party Teacher’s Institute, then took their newly acquired knowledge into a
In 2005, I received a copy of an upcoming article in a popular art education magazine that
wide variety of teaching situations. Working closely with me was a stellar curriculum
was supposedly a tribute to The he Dinner Party and me. The project involved students creating
team, spearheaded by Dr. Marilyn Stewart of Kutztown University, who created a
autobiography plates.
comprehensive curriculum incorporating the best of the fifty projects into lesson plans
It is not that there is anything inherently wrong with this type of project; it just has nothing
for different grade levels. D
to do with The Dinner Party, which is aimed at teaching women’s history. Moreover, another of the work’s intentions is to help viewers think beyond the personal, especially girls and women who often drown in the personal demands that are still placed on females in societies around the globe. In addition to providing education about the achievements of women in Western civilization, The Dinner Party was and is aimed at helping both men and women to better understand women’s experiences through the lens of history, something that is unavailable to
The Dinner Party K-12 Curriculum is available as a series of free, downloadable files at www. throughtheflower.org, with a resource packet of visual materials available at a modest cost. The curriculum will be premiered in April at the annual meeting of the National Art Educators Association, in Minneapolis. To celebrate the official launch of the curriculum, Through the Flower is holding a public reception on Friday, May 1, at 3 pm at the Statehouse in Santa Fe, with refreshments provided by Zia Diner. Reservations/details: 505-864-4080 or e-mail info@throughtheflower.org
most people because women’s history is still taught in such a spotty and incoherent manner.
| april 2009
The magazine |39
PCAC_spring09_themag_1-4.qxd:Layout 1
3/10/09
1:32 PM
Page 1
Memories from the Wardrobe mixed media wor ks by
Ann Dunbar
2009 Spring Exhibition & The Nylon Show April 10–June 28, 2009
Art Center Hours: Wed–Friday: 1–5 p.m. Saturday: 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Sunday: 1 p.m.–5 p.m. All other times by appointment.
1755 Avenida de Mercado Mesilla, NM 88046 575-523-8713
Artists Dan Burkholder, Jeff Curto, Elizabeth Galvin, Jed Schlegel, Richard Warrington Jason Brown, Karen Bucher, Flo Hosa Dougherty, Amanda Gordon Dunn, Arielle Falk, Amy M. Ho, Glenn Holgersen, Amanda Marcott, Svala Olafsdottir, Elizabeth Scof ield, Peter Snadik, Cecelia Thorner, Laura Young, Susan Young
www.prestoncontemporaryart.com
Ann Dunbar
Past, Present, Future
paper, mixed media
108" x 36"
through May 1 at artspace116 AVAILABLE APRIL 15 THROUGHOUT NEW MEXICO
Volume 23 · 2009-2010
700+ full-color images in 300+ pages · 6000+ artists indexed to their galleries Gallery, Studio & Museum profiles · Detailed street-by-street maps Informative articles · Dining & lodging resources · Glossaries of art terms
artspace116
Downtown Abq in the Century Theatre Block Mon-Fri 9–5 @ 116 Central Ave SW · Suite 201 Albuquerque, NM 87102 Tel 505·245·4200 www.artspace116.org · www.collectorsguide.com
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
Helmut Dorner: little Bricks
T
James kelly contemporary 1601 paseo De peralta, santa Fe
“This highly focused yet open-ended exhibition foregrounds abstraction’s intrinsic sociability in two ways. First, by emphasizing the synthetic or artificial nature of all art, Postmark makes the indisputable (if often overlooked) point that inanimate objects do not die, even if people and passion do. As far as its works are concerned, the life and death of people’s passions are precisely what’s at stake. The show’s elaborately crafted paintings, sculptures, and mini-installations—whose palettes are anything but organic—put a premium on artifice and take a step away from nature, not to embrace anything aberrant or kinky, but to more firmly ground themselves in the civilized world of human interaction. In the cosmopolitan cosmos of these works, the opposite of whatever might be described as natural is not unnatural—it is social.” —David Pagel, “Abstraction’s Generous Anonymity,” from the catalogue for the exhibition Postmark: An Abstract Effect
The above quote by David Pagel
references an exhibition that took place at SITE Santa Fe precisely one decade ago. Postmark: An Abstract Effect was a brilliant exposition of abstract art in which painting in particular demonstrated that it had undergone a dense and engaging transformation. The “paintings” for the most part were anything but paintings in the usual sense. The word “oxymoron” was used by Bruce Ferguson in his Postmark essay to refer to the new spirit of abstract painting that surfaced in the eighties and nineties. Ferguson wrote, “An oxymoron, like an abstract image… is not a reconciliation of disparate dialectical opposites. An oxymoron acts as a space of limbo or undecidability, a space in which choice is suspended and contrary impulses occupy the same position simultaneously.” I think Ferguson’s suspension of choice is also another way to discuss the suspension of disbelief that occurs when confronted with the new breed of abstract painters who, for example, work directly on Plexiglas, pour resin on mirrors, sheets of steel or Mylar, and work with non-painterly materials like M&M candies, plaid carpeting, and 16mm hazy leader film. Postmark was anything but predictable and it seemed that any form or material could be wedged into the category of abstract painting, especially if you dropped the word painting from the attempts to categorize it. The German artist Helmut Dorner was also in Postmark, although his work in that show is only a kissing cousin to his current work in Little Bricks. Painting in Dorner’s hand is a decidedly mutable feast. If Dorner’s work in Postmark was self-reflexive and reserved, his new paintings are—and I borrow the word from Pagel—social. This new work is more socially inclined, more overtly communicative and extroverted. These new paintings are anything but standoffish and their intimate scale is part of their appeal. But that doesn’t mean you can exactly pinpoint their meaning as they travel back in time, alluding to gesture, to Abstract Expressionism, and to the root level of paint itself—its heretofore sacrosanct viscous nature. There are also allusions to landscapes, the places where edges meet and merge, and the things of this world that you might find in traditional still-life painting: food and flowers. But Dorner’s work also plays quite happily alone in its timeless limbo space, defying the odds that you will recognize something real in these images, something beyond gesture or color. Dorner pushes some of painting’s many alter egos—its profligate nature, its ability to seduce, to envelop you in the intricacies of gestural thinking—as he takes you for a visual ride on the synclines and anticlines within a landscape of highly textured paint. Are the works in Little Bricks Dorner’s personal attempts to reinvent painting? One could go back to its origins as colored pigment on a wall where the pigment was blown through a hollow bone or applied with hands and fingers. But one must go back further still, or if not back, then sideways to the much bigger realm of language, syntax, and the dialectical nature of all symbolic expression. Every color introduced, covered over, or wiped away with fingers or palette knife, every bit of tactile Helmut Dorner, BRAS Orchid, oil on canvas on wood support, 15¼” x 17½”, 2008 surface that remains, every decision as to canvas size and support system is an exploration of consciousness. However non-verbal the image, the dialectics of its existence is there like blood is there at the fundamental level of our physical being. The paintings in this show possess a physicality that is as primal as the blood flowing within us. It’s as if Dorner cut into his own psyche and these works oozed out. The viewer could also study these paintings in terms of art history and think about them as Dorner’s attempts to tweak the work of Manet and Monet—not to go them one better, but to adjust their parameters, so to speak—Dorner widening his scope to acknowledge their contributions to the evolution of painting and set their work adrift in an “oxymoronic” space with its suspensions of disbelief; not a space of reconciliation, as Ferguson said, but a space of shifting analysis where hindsight is, on occasion, 20/20 vision. Painting is a constantly moving target—always in limbo and always in dialogue with YOU.
diane arMitaG ita e itaG
| april 2009
The magazine |41
h
P
FreDerick Hammersley: DrawinG closer
emily kimBall: Houses
anD
Dolls Gallery De peralta, santa Fe Box
1611 paseo
Houses and Dolls posits an equipoise between the human urge for moral values balanced against the “explosion and release” of mayhem, massacre, and destruction. By extension this becomes an exploration of the dualistically opposed forces of hope and despair, or sympathy versus brutality. Emily Kimball’s prettily painted dollhouses in candy colors highlight both the fantasy attraction of easy home ownership and the (un)reality of the current mortgage crisis in which more than half of American homeowners are upside down. By using houses and dolls, the common toys of children, to express mutual oppositions, it is made clear that these antithetical realities spring from a common source: the imaginative human consciousness. Kimball seeks to expose parallels between the unfettered greed of the “free market” as a repressive and destructive force and the other utopian social systems that have gone badly awry over the past century. In a very real sense we are at a stage in the developed world where an aggregate growth economy, as posited by consumer capitalism, is negatively impacting the quality of life of the vast majority of the people while supplying a minute social elite with the tools of oppression. Lives are less and less acted as they are acted upon. Our bodies, the sole sites of desire, become increasingly manipulated, like playthings. As much “showdown” as show, this series is a sculptural confrontation between the forces of domestic security (in every sense of the phrase) on one hand, and succumbing to the terror of atrocity on the other. The past century, and indeed the past decade, from Hiroshima to My Lai, from Nazism to the Khmer Rouge, from Stalin to Mao, and now, Mumbai, has brought humanity to the brink of moral collapse. The long row of robotic dolls on their Lucite “diving boards” represent a constructed realism, both artistic and philosophical, concerning the choices each of us faces if we are to maintain our humanity in an increasingly shattered world.
cHarlotte H Jackson Fine art 200 west marcy street, suite 101
Picasso once said, “There is no abstract art, you must always start with something.
Afterwards you can remove all traces of reality.” Frederick Hammersley’s figurative drawings are a start, becoming pathways to his pioneering hard-edged abstract paintings. The drawings are not only studies, but also sensitive expressions of how direction and weight of line generate movement, shadow and light form geometries and create mood, and dramatic value scales evoke psychological and visceral responses. There are many thoughtful portraits and nudes in this show, but the drawings that most attract my interest are six small spontaneous portraits hanging in a line on the wall opposite the entrance. These works evoke Picasso’s words and refer to the statement by the great Italian art historian Giorgio Vasari, “In art, drawing is the necessary beginning of everything.” All six sketches suggest concerns addressed in the artist’s abstract paintings. The contours of each face in Outward (1965) and Agreed (1975) are defined by a scribblelike fluid line, with dark strokes. Patches of smudged pencil within these linear borders become planes that float forward in space, giving each expression volume and density. Strong gestural lines determine the topology of the face in Yes (1974). These dark tangles live on the inside and outside of the contours, creating a paradox, the same type of paradox that one finds in Hammersley’s paintings. Form is contained and liberated at the same time. Succinct (1975) is the most minimal of the small portraits. Three curvilinear charcoal lines enclose the face. A jagged lightning-like mouth and a tiny triangular eye suggest tremendous energy and abandon in this asymmetrical meditation. Ink dots connected by linear sweeps articulate and punctuate features and their relationships to one another in Stuffed Shirt (1980). This little ink portrait is extremely spare, yet bursts with spontaneity and expression, another paradox when considering the title and subject matter. The final drawing along the wall, Madam (1975), also dances with ink. Angles and curves are broken, carving a multifaceted space, but poised perfectly to viscerally portray the persona of a woman with a forceful personality. The drawings throughout the show have been framed by the artist, who has thoughtfully designed, carved, and colored each one to create a harmonious dialogue with the enclosed artwork and bring a dynamic equilibrium to the entire body of work. Kudos to Charlotte Jackson for presenting an exhibition of Hammersley’s drawings at the time of his ninetieth birthday. It’s an insightful tribute and offering, but it’s risky. Jackson is presenting private reflections never exhibited before. Yet it’s uplifting to enter an unexpected and intimate realm that expands our knowledge of the range and complexity of Hammersley’s works.
susanna carlisle
jOn carver
Emily Kimball, Five Poly, cast polyurethane, acrylic, 8¼” x 10” x 10”, 2008
Frederick Hammersley, Outward, pencil on paper, 7½” x 7½”, 1975
P
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
open pro roJJ ect p HotoGrapHy Zane Bennett contemporary art 435 soutH GuaDalupe street, santa Fe
Photography has been gradually easing itself out of a program of post-structuralist critique and processes
consistent with what Foucault once labeled “the insurrection of subjugated knowledges.” As the works of the likes of William Anastasi, Cindy Sherman, and Richard Prince become ever more naturalized through enshrinement on museum walls and the numerically overburdened pages of contemporary auction catalogs, other photographers have found incident to slowly renew the medium’s preoccupations with the historical, social, and political concerns that have informed its practice since the time of Hill and Adamson. We stand at a point in art history in which permeability reigns and uncertainty is certain, which is to say that this is a fitting occasion for the curatorial ambivalence engendered by such theme-eschewing and blatantly market-testing visual programming as Zane Bennett’s Open Project Photography. In its presentation of works by eleven photographers (only two of whom are represented by the gallery), little smacks of art-institutional mutiny, semiotic performance anxiety, or informed snickering about the tenuous aura of the reproduced object; candidly pluralistic and open to new talent, the exhibition hopes to express little more than the complementarity and equal value of antithetical styles and themes. This is not to suggest that the exhibition’s artwork is as inclusive and carefree as its curation. To the contrary, Jonathan Blaustein’s series The Value of a Dollar presents a vitriol-fueled conceptual rigor as taut and consistent as its macro photographs’ bantam depth of field. Censuring the food industry’s glamorization of comestibles neither fit for consumption nor warranting the environmental exhaustion entailed by their manufacture, the series’ pigment prints mounted to cintra with archival laminates evidence a sincere attempt to marry possibly incommensurable impulses: the presentation of aesthetically engaging depictions of food (pristine shots of tomatillos, dried smelt, glistening beef shank, and talus-like mounds of Shurfine flour photographed dead-on against chromatically non-competing backgrounds) and the simultaneous provision of a barbed rejoinder to industrial food’s mannered marketing. Unfortunately, despite the artist’s self-imposed constraints of shooting only a dollar’s worth of any given item and doing so without styling, retouching or artificial lighting, Blaustein’s images attain a solicitous sleekness nearly indistinguishable from that which they purport to critique–– effecting scarcely more than the rarification of consumerist gluttony into consumerist connoisseurship. Patty Levey’s surrealistic, sepia-toned silver-gelatin prints are equally committed to passing reactive judgment. Sandwiching negatives portraying the United States Constitution and a grenade-clutching infant in his mother’s embrace, We the People articulates Levey’s anti-war polemics through the use of Ameri-Christian iconographic conventions. Sadly, the image’s theatricalization through artificial patinas and Judy Miller, Outtake #18, Siegfried, archival pigment print, 28” x 40”, 2008 poeticizing superimposition discredits the immediacy of the artist’s concerns; interceding in the magic of the real, the work no longer possesses the emotive agency of an unpremeditated slice of a world in need of concrete and particular change. As Susan Sontag has perceptively noted, “The images that mobilize conscience are always linked to a given historical situation. The more general they are, the less likely they are to be effective.” On the other hand, the artist’s nudes, particularly Shell (a formally accomplished figure study that merges Man Ray’s proclivity for surreal props with Weston’s signature crouched, faceless, and self-enclosing poses), effectively manipulate desire’s ties to the archetypal and the allure of the anonymous. Like Levey’s work, Judy Miller’s series of archival pigment prints, Imaginary Dioramas, employs additive processes to engender surreal scenarios. Drawing from an extensive archive of Madame Tussaud’s wax figures, as well as an equally comprehensive set of landscapes and interiors, the artist develops uncanny juxtapositions that defamiliarize and dehumanize celebrity figures. In their focus on Tussaud’s figures, their challenge to the conception that photography’s relation to its subject matter stands as the medium’s greatest claim to authority, and their consequent engagement with the subjectivity of seeing, Miller’s works readily evoke Hiroshi Sugimoto’s antecedent portraits. Nonetheless, in their eschewal of the grave art-historical concerns that informed the Japanese photographer’s haunting black-and-white imagery (a condition attributable to Siegfried Fishbacher, Lucille Ball, and John Wayne’s not yet having entered the canon of artistic representation) and equally elegiac, uniformly black backdrops, such images as Outtake #10, Woody 2, which pits a forlorn Woody Allen sculpture against the unexpectedly un-chic backdrop of a Wigwam Village Motel, establish themselves as wholly original expressions of absurdist glee. Where Miller creates photographs that value playfulness and immediacy over refined art-historical criticality, Deborah Orapallo strives unsuccessfully to reverse the formula. Indeed, superimposing images of hyper-sexualized adolescent female models in patent platform pumps over such paintings as Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon in his Study and Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy only to observe the sexes’ struggle for visual dominance as they suggest the irreconcilability of male and female identity and the traditional male hegemony over visual culture is far from either a subtle or novel Feminist aesthetic conceit. A little too certain, a little too self-assured, it manifests the exact opposite of that which lends interest to both Open Project Photography and contemporary photography itself: an unselfconscious openness about the uncertainty of its explorations.
alex rOss
| april 2009
The magazine |43
T
pHotoGrap rapHy
in
new mexico unm art museum, center For tHe arts unm campus, alBuquerque
The New Mexican photographic heritage
towers head and shoulders above many bodies of photographic accomplishment in other states, as most photographic historians would acknowledge. This is not to say that there have not been fine photographers at work in, say, North Dakota, Alabama or Minnesota; it is simply that the cultural heritage of New Mexico is so incomparably rich and variegated that it has served for ages as a powerful magnet for both native and outsider photographers. Last, and by no means least— especially when one considers the special medium of photography, the distillation of earthly light itself—the prismatic light of this territory has entranced generations of artists. Add to this the multifarious landscape of New Mexico, ranging from the lush and verdant to vistas close to lunar, and it becomes completely understandable that such an exhibition as Photography: New Mexico, a choice sampling of photos from the collection of the Art Museum of the University of New Mexico, as assembled by the noted photographer, Thomas Barrow, should prove to be an informative and memorable experience. The occasion for this winter’s exhibition of some great New Mexico photographs is the publication of a sumptuous (and long sought-after) book, Photography: New Mexico, by Albuquerque’s Fresco Fine Art Publications, in 2008. With insightful texts by the photographic gray eminence himself, i.e. Thomas Barrow, and art critic Kristin Barendsen, and with an introductory essay by Stuart A. Ashman, N.M. Secretary of Cultural Affairs, this compilation of work by a handful of photographers living here belongs on any shelf that hopes to encompass the variety and amplitude of the subject. A glance at the roster of artists included seems to be quite comprehensive and ambitious (though there are bound to be regrettable omissions, considering that only twenty-five are featured). A handful of images (in the Fresco publication) will likely haunt viewers for a long, long time. Thomas Barrow’s newest Modest Structure works, color, pin-hole camera shots of sorry, abandoned Southwestern commercial roadside buildings are not only exquisitely melancholy in their soft focus, but also seem to capture palpably the shimmering heat of the day. Likewise fixed in my mind are some of the botanical-themed works of veteran Betty Hahn. Museum Garden, for example, wonderfully conflates two streams of artistic history. Recollecting the nostalgie of Atget’s architectural images of palaces and anonymous by-ways of old France, Hahn enhances the vista by printing the image on fabric and picking out the blossoms in the museum garden in stitching, recalling, as Barendsen puts it, “the anonymous women in history who approached photography as craft.”
jan adlMann
L
pHoto oto - eye
staFF sHow pHoto - eye B ooks 370 Garcia street, santa Fe
Like the occasional postcard,
the photo-eye Staff Show is an all too brief “Wish you were here.” While the exhibition includes interesting and sophisticated photographs, the bookstore as a setting is too distracting and takes away from the individual expressions. The eight photographers included in the show work in the photo-eye bookstore or gallery in some capacity and clearly take their medium seriously; they are not casual about photography. I imagine a kind of downloading of information, synchronized between the unique collection of photography books and the worker-bee artists themselves. And how fun it must be for someone who eats and breathes photography to be able to talk to the same person who sells and packages their books as the one whose art is on the walls. I like it. But grouped together as an exhibition, the only thing the artists share is that they work together, which isn’t enough to pull off a show. Taken as individual photographs, I am surprised and delighted by what I see. I appreciate the sense of deliberate play in how photographic images can be staged or manipulated—or found by happy accident, as may have been the case in both Ben Lerman and Daniel Espeset’s images. One of Lerman’s pieces shows a fuzzy cow beneath a billboard depicting a cartoon image of a cow chilling out and smoking a pipe, while Espeset clicked a spunky, yet slightly off-kilter portrait, of a woman waiting for the train with eyes closed and grocery bags at her feet. The artists display a range of subjects, from Adam Figliola, Cliff Shapiro, and Heather Prichard’s treatment of reflective light and pensive dark on the landscape, to Melanie McWhorter’s intimate portraits of the progressive stages of morning ritual, and finally Anne Kelly and Maxine Chelini’s experiments with perspective and inventive film processing techniques. These are clearly interesting photographers with interesting things to say, but their stories get lost in the clutter of the bookstore and their individual statements are left underdeveloped. I wanted to see more than one or two pieces from each photographer. And the more I considered how the photographs were displayed in the bookstore, the more aware I became of how important presentation is. Displaying these photographers’ work in the bookstore and not in the beautiful gallery across the parking lot, almost guarantees that no one will take them seriously, yet.
erin j. sMith
Betty Hahn, Museum Garden, Bichromate on fabric with stitching, 1973
Heather Prichard, Los Angeles to Santa Fe, gelatin silver print, 8” x 10”, 2006
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
J
James HavarD linDa DurHam H Ham contemporary art 1101 paseo De peralta, santa Fe
James havard’s got chops. That’s the long and short of it. It’s like when you hear jazz greats talking about
Charlie Parker and swooning over “his sound.” It’s a very unspecific accolade. Basically, you’re saying he’s got what it takes to make m ake the work great. He hits it. He gets it. He kills. He’s on time. Oh, you can get all analytical. You can try to pin down what it is you love about Bird’s sound. You can say Havard’s ccompositional ompositional skills are stellar, or that his color sense is supreme. You can talk about the textural love of painterly impasto and his h is wild and quirky content. But the real deal is just that his paintings inevitably pack a punch, because of all of the above and then that something extra. Which is all that really matters, that something extra, that ““je then je ne sais what the fuck,” as the French hip-hopper h ip-hopper puts it. ’Cause you know all the technical know-how in the world ain’t gonna save your sorry ass if you ain’t got what iitt takes to make the thang swang. So what is that something extra? It goes by many names. Call it duende, spirit, chutzpah, cajones, curiosity, or just plain courage. Describe it as the willingness to risk, or divine (or demonic) intuition. Whatever you name it, however you explain it, the fact remains that it’s something that James Havard’s got! Enough on that score, the next thing not to ignore is the necessity of unpacking “primitivism.” Over and over again, Havard’s works are described as “primal” or “primitive.” We need to take a look at what this really means. One person I queried about the show at the venerable LDCA said he liked the painting, but where did “this white dude get the nerve to paint in such a primitive style?” Like Havard’s some sorta caveman, or something. Actually, cave paintings are less expressive and more realistic than what Havard’s after. In fact, if you think about it for more than two seconds, it’s hard to know what “primitivism” really means. The term is used as a put-down meaning unsophisticated, or it’s used as a stand-in for “authentic,” “unadulterated,” or “real.” Either way, it signifies an utterly European attitude about “the other.” Part noble savage, part barbarian is what it is meant to imply. In either case, it says worlds more about the “sophisticates” who employ it than it does about any early civilizations or first peoples. Most of these so called “primitives” actually have highly sophisticated rules and styles in place when it comes to making art, and usually a lot of skill and careful meticulousness is required, and more often than not expressivity is not the hallmark. First applied to Gauguin and Van Gogh in ways both positive and negative and later as a mainstay of Dubuffet’s Art Brut, the idea is actually a colonial Euro-fantasy about a non-existent subset of civilization. In this sense the only true primitives are the ones running the Western World. In fact this attitude of expressive mark-making and splattered paint is an aspect of the high art tradition of Modernism (inherited from European Romanticism) and doesn’t actually manifest in any other time or culture. Children’s art worldwide might be the only notable exception to this rule. So put Havard in a line with the above-mentioned painters, throw in wild man Pollock, Joan Mitchell, a dash of Guston, and include Jean Michel Basquiat and you’ve pretty much got the whole of “primitive” culture (excluding our corporate leaders and politicians.) “White dudes” invented it. They’re the first and foremost of the primitives. The idea that someone with darker skin (read Basquiat) has some greater claim to an all-out expressive approach to painting than a honky like Havard is just dull-witted racism. They’re just both great painters; almost as good as children. Just leave it at that. James Havard, Boxer, paint and flocking on paper, 18” x 12”, 2006 My favorite painting here was Boxer. This pugnacious seated nude, so remarkably found through a simple energetic line against a Japanese red ground, is quirky and truthful in ways it would be useless to explicate. Havard’s greatest strength, once the polemics of style recede, is the psychological wackiness of his subject matter. His wit is everywhere apparent. She reclines as she pops her punches. Her grace and brutality are synonymous. Her fighting spirit is the source of her sexy simplicity. Like all of Havard’s work, she embodies the prime notion that strength and sensuality need never be opposed.
jOn carver
| april 2009
The magazine |45
L
lee FrieDlanDer new mexico anDrew smitH Gallery 203 west san Francisco street, santa Fe
Lee Friedlander is an indisputable giant in the field of contemporary photography. As a student of photography who was born during the fertile beginnings of his career, it is well nigh impossible for me to get a true grasp of how he has shaped and impacted the subsequent two generations of art photographers. Many of his true contemporaries and champions—Garry Winogrand, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, and John Szarkowski—have all but exited stage left. Still, Friedlander continues to act the pedestrian photographer, making images (on film, with a Hasselblad) at least four or five days a week. Indeed, his work is infused with an avid, active, ambitious sense of wandering and curiosity. As evidence of this, he has been coming to New Mexico from his home in New York for over forty years, oftentimes on rambling and legendary summer road trips with John Szarkowski, among others. The Andrew Smith Gallery has been Friedlander’s New Mexico dealer for over twenty years and it is a boon to this city that he has maintained that relationship. Lee Friedlander New Mexico is a modest selection of prints culled from the past twelve years worth of visits to our state. It is also the name of an accompanying book, published by local upstart Radius Books (and full disclosure is that I am a founding member of that publishing company). In a recent online exchange with fellow-blogger Jeffrey Ladd, he challenged the Friedlander book through a line of questioning that culminated with “One of the most damning questions to ask of a book,” which is, “Is this necessary?” This is a fair question to ask of any book, even one by the most influential old guy in photography. To be honest, this body of work—the New Mexico work—is not the most important work Friedlander has done. These words are Friedlander’s, not mine. From the beginning of the process of working with him, Friedlander made it clear that any pretense to grandiosity in the book, or the show, be shunned. The question of necessity is a broad and penetrating one, for it reaches deep into the importance of art and art’s role in society. The question is not only, “Is this book necessary?” but also this photograph, and this medium, and the entire structure required to support working artists. In the case of Friedlander there is yet another aspect to this question of necessity, and it is one that revolves around age. Friedlander was born in the 1930s and the necessity of supporting and watching and learning from our “elders,” as it were, is as pressing as anything else I can imagine. Just as Friedlander’s work as a young man was groundbreaking, so too is his consistency and simple continuance of efforts. The answer to the above questions is a resounding “Yes!” Support of the arts is vital to the advancement of any society and civilization. Concurrent with this is the chance to learn from one whose observations of the world around us are both complex and simple—a paradoxical state that is difficult to achieve. I encourage you to wander down to the Andrew Smith Gallery and do some simple observing yourself.
darius hiMes
i
reiko kakiucHi-coHen: Harmony toucHinG stone Gallery 539 olD santa Fe trail, santa Fe
in the heat and erratic fire
of the human heart, certain well-formed substances can be made hard and durable. And if handled carefully, if their inherent fragility substances iiss respected, these forms might be made to endure and to pass beyond the threshold of eeven ven death. Reiko Kakiuchi didn’t start out directly on the path of the artist, but love had that plan for her. When her husband, Ben Cohen, a renowned ceramic artist in both the United States and Japan, contracted Lou Gehrig’s disease and gradually lost the use of his body, she became his hands. Over the course of the two or three years prior to his death, Cohen coached her through the wood-fired forms and techniques he had perfected. And she became the artist’s mind and imagination. Today Reiko Kakiuchi-Cohen is an esteemed master ceramicist in her own right. Her highly unusual vessels and vases are in high demand worldwide She keeps certain forms alive like memories that endure, while she also experiments with new shapes and subtleties. She both channels and changes what her late husband left her. This incredible work is all hers, though sweetly it finds sources in his achievements. Recently her work has incorporated wooden and iron elements in the form of bases and supports. Harmony-Triple Vases No.9 and No.38 both use flat pieces of forged iron to support a series of three upright vessels that read as reeds, or flutes, or sections of bamboo. The elegance of these gently curving forms is complemented by the idiosyncratic markings of the glaze, derived both from the artist’s hand and the accidental incidences of the wood-firing process. Kakiuchi-Cohen uses pinewood for her kiln, as opposed to the more traditional cedar. Pine fires more erratically, giving the surfaces of her work fascinating colors and surprising changes. The heat of the fire writes its own calligraphy onto her body of work. HarmonyVaseForm No.11 takes on the abstract shape of an upper torso or sleeveless robe tied at the waist. On one side the surface is rich with black, white, and yellow-green glazes which seem to run down the roundness of the vase, while the other side is almost all a warm neutral with a couple of white cloud-like forms floating on breast and shoulder. The rightness of the randomness of these effects is subtly but supremely satisfying. In the meeting of East and West that Reiko Kakiuchi-Cohen’s work has come to symbolize, you find that there are many different unexpected containers in which the flame of love and caring can be held.
jOn carver
Lee Friedlander, 1498-17: Santa Fe, NM, 2001 © Lee Friedlander
Reiko Kakiuchi-Cohen, Vase No.11, ceramic, 13” x 4½” x 8”, 2009
MONSTA it’s about time!
Home of
10 Vintage
$
cowboy/cowgirl
FOR EVERYONE
The BIGGEST Used Boot Store Around! 5,000 Pairs of new & happily used boots for men, women and kids.
Shirts 3 for $25
Most Boots $99
$39 Leather Jackets $20 Skirts
h u m a n
l i n e
s t u d i o
127 D Bent Street Taos NM OPEN 11 - 5pm or by appt. 575-751-3033 humanlinestudio@newmex.com
Santa Fe 531 South Guadalupe at Manhattan Avenue Across from Tomasita’s & the Train Depot | Open Every Day FREE PARKING 505-984-1256
MARK Z. MIGDALSKI, D.D.S. GENERAL AND COSMETIC DENTISTRY “DEDICATED
TO PREVENTION, SERVICE & EXCELLENCE”
WE’VE MOVED
I am taking the idea of the “working dog” to a new level. I have done my job. Now take me to my groomer!
Jonas Povilas Skardis
Mac (and PC) Consulting ®
Training, Planning, Setup, Troubleshooting, Anything Final Cut Pro, Networks, Upgrades, & Hand Holding
phone: (505) 577-2151 email: Pov@Skardis.com Serving Northern NM since 1996
Make your appointment today!
466-6708
A Great Grooming Shoppe at the Agora Shopping Center in Eldorado
A R C H I T E C T U R A L D E TA I L S
Luminous Adobe photograph by
| april 2009
Robert Drummond THE magazine |49
WRITINGS
Ode to the Rio Grande of New Mexico (After Neruda)
ChAse-dAnieL
Gratefully, I grew up In your apron, Running with you in the fields, casting up torrents of butterflies, scattering grasshoppers wild humming waves flying for the amethyst mountain for the jade pecan grove, for the silver capped church where the old priest liked to hold forth a fruitless mass, poorly attended but for high holidays. Was it your water in that basin, Rio, where we dipped and crossed ourselves at the threshold of salvation every new Sunday?
Cloudy and infused with roots of tamarisk, of cottonwood, of the red-skinned willow – at your shores, Rio, you take in so many tracks – of coyote, bear and bobcat, the etchings of mice and air-boned birds, the cloven trail of deer, of cattle, and the moon of horse hoof, the pointed nail of companion dogs, or hungry, homeless ones – Rio, you nurse so many parched residents, so many thirsty pilgrims. Your own cleaving is a track Rio, through ridge and sand, so far sometimes from your own banks in your narrowest straits, you show us – your trackers – how survival can thin to a hushed line and swell again in places, at times, then suddenly, startlingly, rise fast in the flashing rain. I was wedded at your edge Rio, and our marriage blessed as a journey by yucca blossom stirred first in your water. He smells like you Rio, the love who brings me to life again and again smells like you on summer nights fragrance of the ritual flooding of field and grove, scent of the hot lip of desert at every turn. I have made my home in him, Rio - a home like you: not free of snags and dark currents, yet one to drink in, the one I will stand by through thick and thin.
Julie Chase-Daniel is a juggler of many passions—partnership, parenting, poetry, pottery, and PhD studies at California Institute of Integral Studies. Her poetry has appeared in Psychological Perspectives: A Semiannual Journal of Jungian Thought. She is the founder of In the Family Way, and the mother of Quill—a thirteen-year-old force of nature happily engaged at Desert Academy, Santa Fe.
50| The magazine
g Uy C ross
They always said, Rio, that you were too thick to drink, and too thin to plow – and it is true – you are dammed and ditched, so shallow at times even a drought might pass you over.
photogr ph By photogrA
By JULie By
april 2009 |