Art. History. People.

Albuquerque

The Magazine of the Albuquerque Museum Foundation — Fall 2023

DAVID NUFER

Minimal meets Monumental | State of the Art Photo Archives | Casa San Ysidro Stone Barn Garden

MUSEUM STORE 505-242-0434 • store@albuquerquemuseumfoundation.org

For the holidays, our Georgia O’Keeffe inspired poppy wrap will be a standout.

Our wool felted shawl is carefully hand-made in Nepal.

Be the artwork at your next event. $74.95

2

FALL 2023

Art. History. People.

ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM FOUNDATION PO Box 7006, Albuquerque, NM 87194 505.677.8500 ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM 2000 Mountain Road NW in Old Town 505.243.7255, 311 Relay NM or 711 Tuesday–Sunday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Closed Mondays and holidays THE MUSEUM STORE 505.242.0434 CASA SAN YSIDRO The Gutiérrez/Minge House 973 Old Church Road, Corrales, NM 87048 505.898.3915 MAGAZINE EDITORIAL AND DESIGN Glenna Stocks, Art Director Judy Rice, Designer Kate Nelson, Writer DEPARTMENT OF ARTS & CULTURE CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE Tim Keller, Mayor Shelle Sanchez, Ph.D., Director ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2023-2024

A MESSAGE FROM

S

ANDREW RODGERS

peaking in the UK

bi-annual publication (twice

Parliament nearly

a year, every six months) with

100 summers ago,

separate Calendars mailed

Winston Churchill said

to you every other month (six

something profound: “to

times a year). As a member

improve is to change; to be

in good standing, you don’t

perfect is to change often.”

need to do anything – you’ll

While Churchill was

continue to receive these

addressing criticism for

publications automatically.

his decision to change political parties,

We believe this will keep you better

I’ve long appropriated his message to

informed about the Museum’s programs

how one should approach a career in

and activities, while also allowing us to

the arts. As the teams I’ve led would

try new things with the articles we write

(hopefully) tell you, I passionately believe

for you. As we embark on this change,

the continual pursuit of innovation and

though, I encourage you to let me know

iteration is what separates exciting,

what you think, what you like, and what

aspirational organizations from those at

you miss.

risk of stagnation.

After all, we also need to remember

Today, as you read this digital issue of

what Helen Keller said about change:

Roddy Thomson, Chair

Joe McKinney

Stephanie Del Campo, Chair Elect

Roberto Ortega

our membership magazine, I’m excited

“A bend in the road is not the end of the

Rebecca Owen

to tell you about a new change you’ll

road… unless you fail to make the turn.”

Kathy Rowe, Treasurer

Dennis Owens

Perry Bendicksen, Secretary

soon be seeing. Starting in January

Marta Parnall

2024, we’ll be changing the format and

Scott Schaffer, Past Chair

Tracy Sherman Catherine Baker Stetson

frequency of our printed publications.

Rather than quarterly magazines with

Hal Behl

Jeffrey Squires

Jessica Carothers

Chris Thompson

Adam Ciepiela

Claudia Valles

Josef Díaz

Kenton Van Harten

Jon Drury

Pamela Weese-Powell

MEMORIALS AND TRIBUTES

Carrie Eaton

Alan Weitzel, Museum Board of Trustees

IN MEMORY OF JENNIE CREWS Cris and Kenneth Abbott

Pat Gerard Alex Hauger Louis Huning, Jr. Rhett Lynch

Andrew Rodgers, President + CEO Andrew Connors, Museum Director

ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM BOARD OF TRUSTEES Christine Glidden

Sherri Burr, Ph.D., Vice Chair

Steve Gallegos

Paul M. Mondragon, Treasurer

Lindsey Fromm

Hilma E. Chynoweth, Secretary Augustine “Chris” Baca

COVER PHOTO: DAVID NUFER

Senator Bill Tallman Scott Schaffer, Albuquerque Museum Foundation Representative

IN MEMORY OF HARVEY GRASTY Kathy and Joe Mills Sharon and Sheldon Wright Nancy and Cliff Blaugrund Mary Kay and James Foley IN MEMORY OF LOIS SEIBEL Elaine and Wayne Chew IN HONOR OF SARA STERNBERGER Joni Pierce

DAVID NUFER

Alan F. Weitzel, Chair

calendar inserts, we’ll be moving to a

Andrew Rodgers President & CEO Albuquerque Museum Foundation

Visitors of all ages enjoy the newest exhibition, O’Keeffe and Moore.

V I S I T U S AT:

AlbuquerqueMuseumFoundation.org AlbuquerqueMuseumFoundation.org

1

O'KEEFFE & MOORE

2

FALL 2023

Art. History. People.

O'KEEFFE & MOORE

Minimal Meets Monumental

C

O’Keeffe and Moore revels in what the artists created—and how they created it

AN YOU HOLD A MOUNTAIN

with boundless numbers of rocks, shells,

and Moore highlights the artists’ shared

IN YOUR HAND? Will its weight

bones, and branches, the bounty of which

ability to reinterpret the natural world

crush you? Or could its essence

will appear in the exhibit’s meticulous

while it also, quite simply, celebrates

carry you into another realm?

recreations of their working spaces.

the curvaceous beauty of their work.

Originally conceived at the San

To connect those goals to New Mexico

and Moore, the museum’s filled-to-the-

Diego Museum of Art by curator and

visitors, Albuquerque Museum curator

brim exhibition on Modernist masters

Moore scholar Anita Feldman, O’Keeffe

Josie Lopez made a few changes to the

Such questions ripple throughout O’Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore

exhibit, most importantly by moving a

through December 31. O’Keeffe, who left

section on how the artists addressed

New York in 1949 to nurture her creative

landscapes to the opening stage.

soul in Abiquiú and at Ghost Ranch, and

“Because we’re here in New Mexico,”

Moore, who abandoned London during

she says, “the land needed to be an

the 1940s blitz for the rolling sheep

important part of the show. It tells how each

pastures of Hertfordshire, shared a love for

artist engaged with the outdoors as they

transforming nature—be it a pebble or a

moved from urban environments to rural

plateau—into its proportional opposite.

settings. You see O’Keeffe using a visual

A landscape sizes down to a canvas.

language that plays with color and shape,

A sheep’s bone grows into a colossal

and transforms them to her artistic goals

sculpture. Each artist filled their studio

rather than what she’s specifically seeing.”

Left: Georgia O’Keeffe, Red Cannas, 1927.

Oil on canvas. Amon Center Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas, 1986.11. © 2022 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

ON VIEW

Right: Henry Moore, Family Group, 1944.

Bronze. The San Diego Museum of Art, Bequest of Bequest of Earle W. Grant, 1972.69. LH 231

Through December 31, 2023

O’KEEFFE AND MOORE

AlbuquerqueMuseumFoundation.org

3

O'KEEFFE & MOORE

Georgia O’Keeffe, Pink Shell with Seaweed, ca. 1938. Pastel on paper.

The San Diego Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norton S. Walbridge, 1978.88. © 2022 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Opposite page: Georgia O’Keeffe, Spring, 1948. Oil on canvas. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Gift of The Burnett Foundation, 1997.6.28. © 2022 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

O’Keeffe’s 1948 Spring, a long, 48¼-by-84¼-inch painting that marries an antler, a vertebra, and magnified white flowers with a silhouette of Cerro Pedernal, in Abiquiú, will pair

Lopez hopes that visitors will likewise

Encompassing such a vision requires

with Moore’s 1978 Mother and Child,

look through the sculpture’s cavity, perhaps

about 275 artifacts, including 94 paintings

a 481-pound sculpture. Moore’s

to capture a new way of seeing Spring.

by O’Keeffe, 72 sculptures by Moore,

piece curls around itself in an eternal

“One of the things that happens in

embrace, leaving open a nucleus that

O’Keeffe’s paintings of flowers is that

objects. It also demands an all-hands

mimics the ones found in the bones

there’s no horizon; the picture fills the

effort from museum staff, along with

each artist often held to their eyes to

space,” Lopez says. “I was interested

curators, couriers, and conservators from

frame their focus.

in trying to show, right off the bat, the

the San Diego Museum of Art, Georgia

ways O’Keeffe was looking at the land

O’Keeffe Museum, and Henry Moore

in different ways—and distinguishing her

Foundation. Thirty other museums, plus

landscapes from the paintings of flowers

private collectors, play parts, too.

and tins and boxes filled with even more

that the show ends with. That’s where we

“A project of this size requires all of

bring the exhibit back to the notion of,

our teams pulling together,” Lopez says.

What is it about this place?”

The Albuquerque Museum’s task began by turning around the 7,000-square-foot gallery in a matter of weeks and purchasing a crane and a gantry, a type of rolling scaffold, mighty enough to move some of Moore’s weightiest sculptures. Three of them will

Henry Moore, Working Model for Reclining Figure: Internal/External Form, 1951. Bronze. David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art: The Mary and Earle Ludgin Collection.

4

FALL 2023

Art. History. People.

Do Touch be installed in the Museum lobby. The

“The studios follow up on the inside/

largest, Working Model for Locking Piece,

outside theme,” Lopez says. “It creates an

clocks in at 728 pounds. And it’s just a

intimacy of how they worked.”

maquette—as are all the sculptures in the

One way they never worked is

Get a feel for sculpture in the Family Gallery

exhibit—a mockup of a bronze that today

together. Despite the seeming similarities

towers over Riverside Walk Gardens in

in their art, the pair met only once, in

London. (Moore’s planning for it started

1946, during Moore’s retrospective at the

The tactile nature of sculpture

even smaller than the maquette. He

Museum of Modern Art in New York, where

comes to life in the Family Gallery

conceived the piece while contemplating

O’Keeffe had broken MoMA’s gender line

of O’Keeffe and Moore, courtesy

a pair of pebbles.)

a few months earlier with a retrospective of

of maquettes from internationally

her own. After carving a new and naturalist

acclaimed artist Michael Naranjo. A

the peek inside their studios will rivet

path for other artists to follow, each of

Santa Clara Pueblo sculptor who was

visitors. Besides the artists’ original

them passed away in 1986. O’Keeffe

blinded in the Vietnam War, Naranjo

furnishings, you can marvel at shelves

and Moore reunites them to ignite new

invites visitors to feel the pieces just

filled with the natural objects each one

conversations on the persistence of nature

as he would. “We don’t get a chance

gathered—gnarled driftwood, coiled

and the power of the artist’s eye to shape a

in a museum to touch the artifacts,”

seashells, and so many rocks.

lasting era of creativity.

says Jessica Coyle, associate curator

For all the delight the artworks bring,

O’Keeffe and Moore is proudly sponsored by O’Keeffe and Moore is proudly sponsored by O’Keeffe and Moore is proudly sponsored by

of education. “This is a different kind of opportunity to interact with sculpture.”

The gallery also includes invitation to sketch flowers in the style of Georgia O’Keeffe and take a selfie with a life-size image of her.

The picture was taken by the late

MEDIA SPONSOR MEDIA SPONSOR MEDIA SPONSOR

newspaper editor Ralph Looney, who donated his photography collection to the Museum.

AlbuquerqueMuseumFoundation.org

5

PHOTO ARCHIVES

Picture This

S

The Photo Archives steps up to a state-of-the-art future

MARTPHONES AND

stuffed they made it impossible to acquire

Picture This YouTube series, the archive

DIGITAL CAMERAS MAKE

new collections.

works nearly every day with members of

our visual memories, but

worth of collections and already boasts

IT EASY to keep a log of

The new system has room for 10 years’

new technologies compound the

tracks to install four more rolling cabinets

challenges within every museum’s photo

when the time comes.

archives. Now, improvements in storage

But that’s not the only change. In July,

the public—authors, historians, people researching their families.

“This is the most public-facing department in curatorial collections,” Hartke says.

techniques and a greater regard for

Jillian Hartke’s position was elevated

the role of photography have spurred

from digital archivist to curator of digital

one for assistant digital archivist Carlo

changes at the Albuquerque Museum.

collections.

Ortega, whose new title is curatorial

This summer, the Foundation helped

“It helps recognize that we are

Her promotion was accompanied by

assistant for digital collections. As

purchase a state-of-the-art compact

equal, not subordinate, to other

proud as each one is of their individual

storage system—five boxy units with tiers

curatorial departments,” Hartke says.

accomplishments, both say they’re more

of roomy shelves. Four of the units are

“People have been waiting for this

excited by the magical cabinets that

double-sided and can roll on metal tracks.

department and this collection to be

hold everything from ambrotypes to

Together, they easily house the archives’

valued at this level.”

digital proofs.

estimated 160,000 items. The units

Besides mounting photography

“The system is up to date and hits

replaced 25 four-drawer file cabinets that

exhibits, contributing photos to other

professional standards,” Ortega says.

were not only archivally obsolete but so

curators’ shows, and maintaining the

“It promotes the entire department.”

6

FALL 2023

Art. History. People.

Ron Rael and Virginia San Fratello, Teeter-Totter, 2019, painted steel, bicycle seats, vinyl, ed. 2/3, Albuquerque Museum, museum purchase, IL2023.31.1.1.A-J

Child’s Play A piece of activist art comes to the Museum WHEN THREE PINK TEETER-

that actions on one side of the

residency at the museum

impacts people’s lives

TOTTERS APPEARED ALONG

El Paso and Ciudad Juárez

this year. It’s set to join the

and families.”

THE U.S.–MEXICO BORDER

border have consequences on

Common Ground exhibition

in 2019, pictures of children

the other.

before year’s end.

play, though. “It won’t be

“It’s not a political

attached in a way so it can

Don’t come planning to

playing on them captivated

This fall, one of the teeter-

social media. Teeter-Totter

totters joined the museum’s

argument,” says curator of

move,” Lopez says. “But there

Wall, dreamed up by architects

collection, courtesy of a

art Josie Lopez. “It’s how

will be a video accompanying

Ronald Rael and Virginia San

donation by Rael, who

do we humanize it so that

it so people will be able to

Fratello, symbolized the way

completed an artist-in-

we understand the border

see it being ridden.”

AlbuquerqueMuseumFoundation.org

7

CASA SAN YSIDRO

Serey Chhun tends to the stone barn garden at Casa San Ysidro.

Sowing the Past

T

Casa San Ysidro’s new Stone Barn Garden honors Spanish and Indigenous farmers

HE SECURITY GUARD DIDN’T NEED TO STAY LATE OR

TOIL THROUGH HIS BREAK TIME. Serey Chhun had

a neglected space near the Stone Barn

apricot tree, Chhun tends a collection

took root.

of vegetables and medicinal herbs in

This year, Chhun worked his way

the new Stone Barn Garden. The 39-by-

into a new job—general maintenance

32-foot space is divided into a colonial

always accomplished his official tasks

worker—as Casa San Ysidro deepened its

garden and an indigenous one.

on time, says Casa San Ysidro Manager

commitment to telling the story of New

Aaron Gardner. But Chhun could see that

Mexico’s agricultural past.

Edible plants include pinto beans, radishes, carrots, fennel, black currants,

Gardner needed a hand tending the site’s

“It’s just me and Aaron together,”

and sumac berries; beneficial herbs

gardens. The child of farmers in Cambodia,

Chhun says while standing in the new

include yarrow, sage, scorpion weed,

he had, since 2017, taught himself a few

Stone Barn Garden. “Whenever he has

datura, and Apache plume.

tricks of New Mexico’s fickle growing

time, he comes out to help.”

conditions in his Albuquerque yard.

Along with the Plazuela Garden and the

The growth defies a 2018 soil sample.

“It was basically sand,” Gardner says of

So, he volunteered to help. And kept

plants in front of Casa San Ysidro, which

the plot. He spent the next five years

helping, as Gardner’s vision to embrace

include a grape arbor and a 130-year-old

digging load upon load of compost into

8

FALL 2023

Art. History. People.

it. This spring, Chhun placed the first plants, provided by Silver Leaf Farms and Plants of the Southwest, then kept at it through one of the hottest and driest summers on record.

“My parents grew rice during the monsoon season and vegetables in summer,” he says. “I learned a lot from them. This country has different weather, but Aaron and I are on the same page and figured it out.”

One week, he plucked fruits from the site’s prickly pear cactus because they reminded him of the dragon fruits he ate as a child. At home, Chhun and his wife pressed and strained the fruits into a juice they shared with a grateful Casa San Ysidro staff.

In the Plazuela, he’s slowly accomplishing a colonial garden plan set out by noted Albuquerque landscape architect Baker Morrow, including the addition of plum, peach, and apricot trees.

For Gardner, the efforts exemplify how we can learn from the past.

“Now more than ever, people need to realize there’s a human connection to

Folk Art with a Burn How women stitched a subversive message

T

HE PATCHWORK SCENE

OF A WOMAN CRADLING HER CHILD in a mountain

depicts a torture site. One invents a prison for the military. Justicia y paz honors assassinated loved ones.

cemetery could be a

That they exist at all is a wonder:

charming bit of Chilean folk art. But this

Anyone caught creating or smuggling

example of arpillera, or cotton appliqué

them could face the government’s wrath.

textile art, represents government

“They could have been made by

land and understand where their food

opposition by women who used their

anyone’s aunt or grandmother,” says

comes from,” he says. “This is a way to link

sewing skills to oppose Augusto

curatorial assistant Jonathan Wright. “It

back to what they were doing historically.”

Pinochet’s brutal regime. The ca. 1983

was almost a message in a bottle.”

Besides that, he adds, the name

Justicia y paz (Justice and Peace) in the

fits. “San Ysidro is the patron saint

exhibit Dictators and the Disappeared:

of farming.”

Democracy Lost and Restored was created anonymously before being

Casa San Ysidro is closed for the season during December and January.

smuggled out of Chile.

Eight such arpilleras are arrayed on two walls of the expansive exhibit, open through February 11. One

Unidentified artist, Villa Grimaldi: aquí se torturó a los detenidos desaparecidos (Villa Grimaldi: Here the Detained and Disappeared were Tortured), Chile, ca.

1983, cotton appliqué panel, 15 x 19 in., Chile Ephemera Collection (PICT 2012011(3)-0002), CSWR, University Libraries, University of New Mexico.

AlbuquerqueMuseumFoundation.org

9

A Voice for the Navajo Nation The Navajo Times reaches for the stars TOM ARVISO STILL

student athletes, Navajo

REMEMBERS THE 1973 DAY

weavers, and hometown

that Gallup police shot and

heroes.

killed Navajo activist Larry

Its role as a voice for the

Casuse after he kidnapped the

Indian Rights Movement

town’s mayor in an attempt to

earned it an honored place in

close a deadly bar near a tribe

News For The People: Local

struggling with alcoholism.

Journalism in the 1970s, on

Then a high school student,

exhibit through March 3.

Arviso says local radio stations

Started in 1960 by the

crackled with updates. But it

Navajo government and

was a photo on the front page

briefly shut down in 1987 by

of a Gallup newspaper that

a disgruntled tribal president,

galvanized not only him, but

the newspaper exemplifies

many of his tribespeople.

the exhibit’s ideal as a bastion

“It showed the police

of democracy.

standing around Larry’s body,

“There’s really no other

like a trophy,” says Arviso, who

voice for the Navajo people,”

went into journalism and rose

says Arviso, who retired last

to publisher of the Navajo

year and was succeeded by

Times, a national standout

Olivia Benally. (He still puts

of independent, hyper-local

in time as a copy editor,

news and the largest Native-

though.)

owned publishing company in the world.

In 2004, the paper became financially independent.

The Times led a multi-year

Its incorporation papers

effort to corral the alcohol

underscore its for-the-people

problem in its midst, while

goal: “The listed owners

also holding tribal officials

are the Navajo people

accountable and celebrating

themselves,” Arviso says.

The Navajo Times, Vol. 14 No. 10, March 7, 1974, ink on newsprint, lent

by The Navajo Times

FOR OLD TIME’S SAKE Journalists for Seer’s Catalogue, a 1970s Albuquerque alternative newspaper, will share their memories of fighting the power at 1 p.m. on December 3. Panelists for the museum’s Seer’s Catalogue Reunion include Tom Barry, Nancy Guinn, and Dede Feldman—plus a few surprise guests.

10

FALL 2023

Art. History. People.

ON VIEW NEWS FOR THE PEOPLE Through March 3, 2024

Giving Thanks Denise Crouse shares her joy connecting with donors SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF

from a couple that we didn’t know at all.

CHICAGO GRADUATE DENISE CROUSE

They have the ability to give a significant

was crafting a graphic design career when

amount, $10,000. They told me that they

an early mentor uncovered her gift with

pick a different charity every year. One

words. She shifted to communications

year, they give to basic needs—food,

and found success working with nonprofit

housing, healthcare. In alternate years,

arts, health, and human service agencies

they give to a cultural organization

before joining the Albuquerque Museum

because, they say, why are here if we don’t

in 2016 as communications director. Last

have this beauty in our lives?

November, she became development officer of the Foundation and graciously

How does this job feed your passion?

agreed to share some thoughts on her

New Mexico and the Southwest have a

new role.

place in the arts-and-culture narrative of our country and the world. The Museum

How do you describe this job?

does a fantastic job of telling that story. I

It’s relationship-building. Talking to people,

feel strongly that, whatever my time here

answering questions, putting together

is, when I leave, this place will be here

packages that address their interests. It’s

and hopefully I’ll have done something to

been a process of getting to know our

make it stronger and help it last for a long

Patrons' Circle members. Everybody has

time to come.

different reasons for helping the Museum, but at the patronage level, it’s really about

Any key funding targets in mind?

being a part of a community, having a

The exponential growth in and need for

passion for the arts. The patrons are very

education at the Museum. The Museum

interested in the personal engagement

gives tours to students throughout

they have—special events, exclusive

the state and, during the pandemic,

lectures with the curators, VIP receptions,

increased our ability to deliver virtual

the new acquisitions dinner.

programming even outside of New Mexico. The Museum puts visiting artists

What interactions have touched

in classrooms. In the future, they'll open

your heart?

an entire Education Center.

ʻʻ

It’s been a process of getting to know our Patrons Circle members. Everybody has different reasons for helping the Museum, but at the patronage level, it’s really about being a part of a community, having a passion for the arts.

The patrons are very interested in the personal engagement they have—special events, exclusive lectures with the curators, VIP receptions, the new acquisitions dinner.

So many. This year, one patron and his wife added a new donation to the Annual

Do I have to be wealthy to help?

Fund and directed it go exclusively to

Even at the general membership level

youth education. Another changed his

there are legacy donors, people who’ve

donation so that it goes toward building

been members for 30 years or more.

the collection in the way that the curators

Everyone who contributes has a story

want. One day, I got a call out of the blue

that I value.

AlbuquerqueMuseumFoundation.org

11