Building a Collection

Left: Oli Sihvonen Dialogue Yellowblue,1964 oil on canvas, 52 x 52 in. Albuquerque Museum purchase, 1981 General Obligation Bonds. Below: Frederick Hammersley, Clout, 1989, lithograph on paper, 12x16 in, Albuquerque Museum, The Urban Enhancement Trust Fund Committee.

Right: Diego Romero, Mayans from Mars, pottery bowl, 5.5. x 11 in diameter Albuqueruque Museum purchase.

An inside look at how curators decide what belongs in the Museum.

THE ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM’S 10,000 WORKS OF ART celebrate many cultures and aesthetic traditions. Curators select artworks for a reason, and often they have to have prescience about what might be interesting for future generations.

The collection reflects the evolution of the Museum, the collections plan, and what future generations might want to know about our current world. It also links those who have influenced New Mexican artists. For example, the Museum owns prints and paintings by German abstract artist Joseph Albers. Albers had a profound influence on New Mexican artists Frederick Hammersly and Oli Sihvonen, among others.

When a curator joins the Museum staff, they bring with them their own interests, but also the commitment to grow the collection based on the Museum’s plan. “As curators, we don’t focus on our personal interests,” says Curator of Art Josie Lopez. “We have to be broader-thinking and determine how we traverse the future direction of the collection.”

THE FOURTH AND FINAL BOOK in the Albuquerque Museum Collection Guide series, "Common Ground," contains images of more than 300 objects and provides an overview of the permanent collection. The book serves to answer the questions: What’s the real New Mexico? How does our culture influence art? It includes input from Museum Director Andrew Connors, Curator of Art Josie Lopez, Ph.D., Lacey Chrisco, former Museum Director Jim Moore, and former Curator of Art, Ellen Landis. Available at the Museum Store.

Below Right: Nicola López, Ideal Structures for a Dubious Future (Tallest Tower) 2012; Explosive intaglio on paper; 27 1/2” x 11”; Self published; edition of 12.

Below left: Nicola López, Ideal Structures for a Dubious Future (Global Sprawl) 2012; Explosive intaglio on paper; 27 1/2 x 11 in; Self published; edition of 12.

Lopez looks at potential acquisitions through a mission-driven lens: Why is this piece important for the collection? How might this fill current, pre-identified gaps in the collection? How might this work fit into exhibitions in development? Does it spark an idea for a future exhibition based on other works already in the collection?

To illustrate, Lopez points to two significant anniversaries that have been on curators’ minds: The 75th anniversary of the Trinity site nuclear explosion; and the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote.

For Trinity: Reflections on the Bomb, the Albuquerque Museum acquired prints from Santa Fe-born artist Nicola LÓpez and drawings from artist and ecological activist Nina Elder—both female contemporary artists who have responded to nuclearism in their work. The acquisitions fill out the Trinity exhibition and add more work from contemporary female artists to the permanent collection.

“We want to be collecting women artists of the region in a very intentional way,” Lopez says. Another recent acquisition with a dual mission is a series of prints from female WPA-era printmaker, Bea Mandelman.

“The WPA had a huge impact here. We wanted these in our collection partially because the Museum didn’t exist in 1930. In the same way that we are future-looking, we are also looking at the past.” López and Mandelman are also important printmakers, another area of focus for the Museum’s collections plan.

Two recently acquired Diego Romero (Cochiti Pueblo) bowls point to the Museum’s focus on innovation within tradition. Decorated in traditional Mimbres pottery geometric style, the Romero bowls feature modern Chongo figures (so named for their top knot hairstyle). The works nod to but transcend Native American traditional ceramics.

Potential donors frequently approach curators with items that the Museum would love to acquire. As stewards of the collection, though, curators have the responsibility to pick and choose based what’s best for the Museum's plan.