NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF ART

Friends of Contemporary Art + Photography

Celebrating Contemporary Art and Imagery

Friends of Contemporary Art + Photography is the member support group for the New Mexico Museum of Art and and the soon-to-open Vladem Contemporary. Members advocate for contemporary art and photography and enjoy exclusive educational and cultural events. Their support generates essential funding for museum exhibitions and collections.

Annual dues are $100 for an individual and $150 for two people. A Museum of New Mexico Foundation membership is required to join.

To join or learn more: Call 505.982.6366 ext. 100 or visit museumfoundation.org/FOCAP

Collecting in the 20th Century—and Beyond

New Exhibitions Presage Vladem Opening

Amid the first blush of a year that will see the August opening of the Vladem Contemporary in Santa Fe’s Railyard Arts District, the New Mexico Museum of Art is launching a series of exhibitions at its original location. These shows celebrate more than 100 years of the museum’s historic collections and look ahead to the cutting-edge works to be featured at the Vladem.

Visitors will experience a permanent shift in focus in the Art Museum’s second-floor galleries. There, Selections From the 20th Century Collection brings together “classic treasures and new surprises from the museum’s collection of 20th century art,” says Merry Scully, the museum’s head of curatorial affairs and curator of contemporary art.

From the Taos Society of Artists to members of the Santa Fe art colony and prominent modernists, these installations, on view through December 31, will change periodically to reflect the best of the collections.

Ansel Adams: Pure Photography, on display through May 22, highlights 17 prints from the museum’s collections and two promised gifts, focusing on pre-1932 photographs Adams made before he was an internationally known artist. Organized by photography curator Katherine Ware, the exhibition shows Adams’s stylistic shift from pictorialism to his more recognizable modernist flourishes.

Opening March 12 is Western Eyes: 20th Century Art Here and Now, exploring regional developments in Modernism, including Indigenous and Mexican movements, as well as American Realism and Native American art.

Ansel Adams, Church at Ranchos de Taos, ca. 1929-30. Gelatin silver print. Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.

Christian Waguespack, curator of 20th century art, assembled the show to represent the types of contemporary art that will be spotlighted at the Vladem. Movements including Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism are all represented, weaving a narrative about the Art Museum’s century-old focus on local artists engaging with broader artistic themes and trends. Featured artists include Rebecca Salsbury James, Raymond Jonson and Manuel Álvarez Bravo.

The Museum of New Mexico Foundation will host a Member Day on Friday, March 11, to allow members to preview Western Eyes and view the other new exhibitions.

Anticipating the Vladem

Scully says the museum’s careful curation of these and other 20th century collections presages the Vladem’s big summer opening, which has several exciting projects still in need of funding. For example:

• 2022 Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Living Treasure honoree Virgil Ortiz (Cochiti) is devising a video installation for the opening. “At Vladem, we will be working

increasingly with technology,” Scully says, “as we have easier access to power technology there.” Funding for speakers and other technology is needed for the project. • Museum curators are heading up another unique Vladem funding opportunity—a window-box program for public art in collaboration with the Santa Fe nonprofit Vital Spaces. • Private gifts are also needed to fund the Vladem’s first year of public programs, including hosting dynamic speakers and public events. • Finally, private gifts are needed for an artist-in-residence program at the Vladem slated to begin in 2023. The initiative reaffirms the New Mexico Museum of Art’s original mission upon opening in 1917: to provide work space for contemporary artists.

To support the New Mexico Museum of Art and Vladem Contemporary, contact Kristin Graham at 505.216.0826 or Kristin@museumfoundation.org.

Top: Fritz Scholder, Snake Dancer, 1967. Oil on board. Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Gift of Mr. John B.L. Goodwin. © Fritz Scholder Estate. Photo by Blair Clark.