Learn more about the new Luchita Hurtado exhibit at the Millicent Rogers Museum

The painter Luchita Hurtado was “discovered” by the art world at the age of 95 and rose to international acclaim throughout the last four years of her life.

Expanding a dialogue: Exhibit channels the spirit of Luchita Hurtado through 10 NM artists

Born in Venezuela and settling later in Santa Monica, California, Hurtado developed a lasting connection to Taos through time spent at her second home in the village of Arroyo Seco.

Her work spanned surrealism, Mexican muralism, feminism and environmentalism.

The Millicent Rogers Museum and the Taos Abstract Artist Collective have conjured “Channeling Luchita: A Community Response to the Life and Work of Luchita Hurtado,” an exhibition of 10 New Mexico artists representing the spirit of Hurtado. The exhibition extends through Feb. 2, 2025.

“Luchita was an amazing, incredible artist who basically never received recognition until the end of her life,” said co-curator Claire Motsinger. “She rocketed to superstardom shortly after that.”

A near-contemporary and friend of Frida Kahlo, Isamu Noguchi and Agnes Martin, among other prominent modern artists, Hurtado was an active participant in the art scenes of New York, Mexico City, Taos and Los Angeles, where she had lived since 1951.

Aligned with the spirit of Hurtado’s life and practice, the artists within the “Channeling Luchita” exhibition respond to themes of visibility and invisibility in practice, abstraction, mysticism, natural landscape and the body.

C marquez’s hanging sculpture “368” is crafted from the native plant tall tumble mustard.

“Everything of their sculpture is made of this plant,” Motsinger said. “There is no hanging hardware — the paper, the cordage, is all made from this plant.”

Like Luchita, c marquez investigates restriction, she added, including specific times, subjects and parenthood.

“Being both artist and parent is very important in their work,” she added.

Lynnette Haozous’ acrylic on canvas portrait “Being in the Sun” reflects her Diné heritage against the threat of colonial violence.

Hurtado never knew the origins of her heritage, thanks to Spanish colonization and an unspoken caste system, Motsinger said.

“The female gaze was important to Luchita,” she said. “She felt a strong connection to Indigenous traditions.”

The Santa Fe painter Margaret R. Thompson expressed one of Hurtado’s core investigations in “Deep Pool 1,” oil and wax on clay panel.

“Coming from a Catholic culture, she was interested in Indigenous traditions,” Motsinger said. “Thompson has that same investigation of spirituality and mysticism. She has a bit of magical realism that came from the Mexican tradition.”

Conceived as a creative response to the Harwood Museum of Art’s exhibition “Luchita Hurtado: Earth and Sky Interjected,” the curatorial response in “Channeling Luchita” is a unique approach to expanding a community dialogue about a beloved Taos artist whose impact is global, provocative and enduring.

Hurtado was included in TIME 100’s most influential people and enjoyed her first solo museum exhibition, “I Live I Die I Will Be Reborn” at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London in 2019 and later at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

She died at the age of 99 in 2020.