SANTOS New Mexican Folk Art [SOLD]


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Author Unknown
  • Subject: Folk Art
  • Item # C3663V
  • Date Published: Softcover, first edition, 1960
  • Size: 20 pages, illustrated
  • SOLD

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SANTOS New Mexican Folk Art

An exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum (now the Pasadena Museum of California Art) July 24 – August 28 1960

 

Softcover, first edition, 1960, 20 pages, illustrated

 

Introduction

 

If one could have lived in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century in the northern Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico and Colorado, he would have seen much that is in this exhibit, and he would have been both delighted and moved.  For here in this dot of time and space flourished an amazing culture producing an extraordinary art.  Saints began to range up and down the towns and villages, bright-colored, cheerful ones and those serious and very important, and every poor farmer and laborer who toiled hard had his burden lessened immeasurably because of his saint.

 

 

The most salient fact about santos and their artisans, known as santeros, is that they were born in a time of emergency and upheaval.  And santos represented one of the strong affirmations of the people’s roots and beliefs.  First in 1821 the Spanish government pulled out of the territory occupied by the descendants of the Conquistadores; then the Mexican government took over, causing an even more lax and chaotic civil reign.  In the face of the oncoming American conquerors the Mexican rule didn’t last long.  During the ensuing turbulence the Spanish settlements were retrenching their ties and way of life to the old world of Spain.  But there was little tangible to cling to.  The villagers were left on their own for their moral and spiritual preservation.  What emerged was a native, vigorous folk art, directly expressing the personality of a farmer-hardened and yet gentle people.  Their santos remind us of something childlike and still ever so wise and lasting.

Author Unknown
  • Subject: Folk Art
  • Item # C3663V
  • Date Published: Softcover, first edition, 1960
  • Size: 20 pages, illustrated
  • SOLD

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