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This 1974 photo shows Helen Hardin, left, her mother Pablita Velarde and Hardin’s daughter, Margarete. (Cradoc BagshaW/courtesy of golden dawn gallery)
Infrequently in the world of art does one encounter three artists in successive generations who are all female, all related and who have become prominent painters.
An example of that rare generational occurrence is here in New Mexico with Pablita Velarde of Santa Clara Pueblo, her daughter Helen Hardin and Hardin’s daughter Margarete Bagshaw.
A set of books recently has been published about these women — “Pablita Velarde: In Her Own Words” by Shelby Tisdale, “Helen Hardin: A Straight line Curved” by Kate Nelson, and Bagshaw’s “Margarete Bagshaw: Teaching My Spirit to Fly.”
The volumes, which contain retrospectives of each artist’s work, were published by Little Standing Spruce Publishing earlier this year.
The publishing company is owned by Golden Dawn Gallery of Santa Fe; the gallery director is Dan McGuinness, Bagshaw’s husband.
“Every one of the three had (or has) their own view of the world,” McGuinness said.
Velarde died in 2006, Hardin in 1984.
The trilogy had its genesis in Bagshaw wanting to revise an earlier biography someone else had written about her mother and her art. While talking to people about the concept of a set of three books, McGuinness said Tisdale volunteered to write a book on Velarde. Bagshaw, meanwhile, was writing her own book, but there was a hang-up with the Hardin biography.
“I came in to rescue the Helen Hardin book because the person who was to write it was unable to, and they were up against a deadline,” said Nelson, marketing manager at the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors.
Nelson said she completed the Hardin biography in seven months.
The books, McGuinness said, are being sold as a set in three price categories:
♦ The basic unboxed set is $85.
♦ The slip case, which retails for $400, is a limited edition and includes a limited edition print of one of Bagshaw’s paintings.
♦ The premier limited edition, of which two remain, sells for $2,500. The books come in a black leather box that includes a small Bagshaw oil painting on the box.
The set is available at Golden Dawn Gallery, 201 Galisteo, Santa Fe, or online at www.thethreebooks.com.
Bagshaw, Nelson and Tisdale will read from and autograph their books at 2 today in the New Mexico History Museum auditorium, 113 Lincoln Ave., Santa Fe.
An exhibit of Bagshaw’s art is on display at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in Santa Fe through Dec. 30, 2013.
Reprint story -- Email the reporter at dsteinberg@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 505-823-3925
