Multiple perspectives: Albuquerque Museum acquires noteworthy works by several artists

The Albuquerque Museum recently obtained some prominent acquisitions that include a piece by artist Richard Diebenkorn.

Diebenkorn, who is recognized as one of the most important artists of the 20th century, completed his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of New Mexico in 1952. He lived and worked in Albuquerque between 1950 and 1952. His abstract works reflected the colors of New Mexico’s landscapes, mountains and skies, according to a museum news release. Diebenkorn passed at the age of 70 in 1993.

The museum added Diebenkorn’s “Untitled (Albuquerque), 1952” to its permanent collection, “Common Ground: Art in New Mexico.”

Multiple perspectives: Albuquerque Museum acquires noteworthy works by several artists

“’Untitled (Albuquerque)’ is one of a few hundred works that he created when he was living and working here in New Mexico,” said Josie Lopez, head curator and curator of art at the Albuquerque Museum. “He did his Master in Fine Arts at UNM and so he was very connected to the art community that was here at that time, in the early 1950s and what was interesting about him and at that time, is that there was this kind of push and pull among artists that were experimenting with abstract art.”

Diebenkorn thought about the landscapes that he was creating and how he was creating these images that related to the land, Lopez added.

“They weren’t exactly depicting what you see, but they were more about depicting the experience of the land, and so that’s why you see the rich colors that are included in that ‘Untitled’ painting. It’s also a reflection of what he was seeing and experiencing here in New Mexico. He talks about it in some of his writings and interviews. He talks about how New Mexico had a profound impact on the way that his artwork developed, and what would be the style that he would continue to develop for the rest of his career.”

Diebenkorn once said, “All paintings start out of a mood, out of a relationship with things or people, out of a complete visual impression,” according to the news release.

Other notable acquisitions include prints, photographs and installations by artists Delilah Montoya, Nicola López, Ronald Rael, Virginia San Fratello, Paula Wilson, Raven Chacon, Joanna Keane Lopez, as well as Yoshiko Shimano.

A conversational piece by Rael is a pink teeter-totter that is accompanied by a video that shows him and his team taking three pink teeter-totters they had fabricated in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to Sunland Park, New Mexico, and installed them on the border wall. Rael chose to paint the teeter-totters pink because in Mexico the color is often used to bring attention to femicides that have happened, particularly along the border, according to Josie Lopez.

“What you see in the video is kids and families coming together on both sides of the border wall and activating the teeter-totter,” she said. “For many years, Ron has been doing these. His background is also in architecture and built environments.”

Rael is currently working on 3D printed work using adobe.

“He’s been creating these artworks that reimagine and repurpose the border wall in ways that bring people together rather than dividing them,” Josie Lopez explained.

Another important collection recently added to the exhibition are photographs by Delilah Montoya. It is one of the largest collections of her work, according to Josie Lopez.

“She did these amazing series,” Josie Lopez said. “One of the most interesting ones, she photographed women boxers. And so again, we want to have diversity, not only of the artists and where they are in New Mexico, but also the different kinds of mediums that we’re bringing in, in terms of paintings, photographs, sculptures, and continuing to grow the collection in a really dynamic way.”

“Common Ground: Art in New Mexico” presents multiple perspectives and voices exploring the lived experiences, cultures, histories and art in this region, according to the museum’s website.

“We’ve been really lucky to have the support of the city of Albuquerque’s Department of Arts and Culture, as well as our museum foundation, and also some generous grants from the Frederick Hammersley Fund at the Albuquerque Community Foundation,” said Josie Lopez.

There are about 12,000 art objects in the collection, and the museum has been able to collect information about many of the artists represented in the collection.

“We started to create a plan for how we were going to continue to grow and develop the collections here at the museum,” Josie Lopez said. “That process was determining what we needed and wanted to continue to tell the stories of some of the really important artists that have come to New Mexico and worked and lived in New Mexico at different times.

Chacon’s works are featured in the “Broken Boxes: A Decade of Art, Action, and Dialogue” exhibition at the museum, which runs through March 2, 2025. The exhibit features large-scale installation, sculpture, video and a robust programming lineup celebrating the work and ideas of 23 artists who have contributed to Ginger Dunnill’s “Broken Boxes” podcast, according to the museum website. The exhibition celebrates ten years of the podcast of the same name and amplifies the collective strength of contemporary artists.

Chacon is the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, known as the Genius Grant, and received the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his composition, “Voiceless Mass.”

“Basically his work is a musical score and he is just doing incredible things in the world of music and challenging the way that people think about music and art and the way that they’re connected,” Josie Lopez said. “A score that he created was actually made from recordings that he got when he was in Standing Rock supporting the water protectors that were there. And so what was going on is that the police and other people had drones that were basically surveilling the water protectors. And so he recorded those sounds, and from that he created the score and the sound component that goes with it.”