Sin Nombre—Hispana and Hispano Artists of the New Deal Era [SOLD]

Sin Nombre—Hispana & Hispano Artists of the New Deal Era

Tey Marianna Nunn

University of New Mexico Press

Hardback with slip cover, first edition, 2001, 192 pages. Fully illustrated. New condition

Hundreds of Hispana and Hispano artists in New Mexico created works of art for the various New Deal programs, but until now they have been mostly nameless “sin nombre.”  Although many people told her she wouldn’t find any artists, Tey Marianna Nunn dug deep into archives and uncovered a wealth of material: artists who made paintings, murals, sculpture, furniture, or who worked in metal, weaving, and fiber arts.  

This book shows that as a result of Eurocentric aesthetic values, rigid art historical categories, and racial prejudice, New Mexico artists were stereotyped and labeled “craftsmen.”  Their work was classified not as an art but as handicraft or labor.

An exhibit that opened in June 1999 at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, brought to the public a major selection of artists working in New Mexico under New Deal programs and inspired other artists and family members to come forward to identify themselves and their artwork.  The artists who are still alive are now mostly in their eighties or older.

This beautiful book restores an important chapter in American art of the 1930s and 1940s to the public record and brings long overdue recognition to a generation of New Mexico artists.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: “Craftspeople, Laborers and Handicraft”

(Mis)Perceptions of Hispano Art of the Early Twentieth Century

Chapter Two: “All this Beauty and Color Should Have a Place in Every Home”

The “New Mexican” Muralists and Painters of El Diablo a Pie

Chapter Three: Art for Everyman: New Mexican Furniture as New Deal Art

Chapter Four: Fabric Arts: Weaving an Artistic Legacy

Chapter Five: Masters of a Different “Canvas”: Mixed Media in El Diablo a Pie

Chapter Six: Sculptors and Santos