HONORING TAOS’ PAST
Exhibit pays homage to co-founder of Taos Society of Artists
Oscar Berninghaus’ expansive landscapes and Native American portraits helped launch Taos as an artists’ colony with a sensitivity that would echo for generations.
About a dozen contemporary artists at Santa Fe’s Blue Rain Gallery will pay homage to the Taos Society of Artists co-founder in an exhibition opening online at blueraingallery.com.
“We can’t help but be intrigued by that legacy,” Blue Rain Executive Director Denise Phetteplace said. “It’s so much of what put Santa Fe and Taos on the map.”
Each artist chose an original Berninghaus composition to pay tribute to through their own interpretation.
The society created an allure that drew visitors from across the globe to New Mexico as a critical art destination. Berninghaus was one of its six original members.
Brazilian artist Deladier Almeida painted “Piece of Plenty” with a sense of both whimsy and irony. A portrait of two pueblo people holding a cellphone and a laptop, it includes a crucifix with the Christ figure attached to an iPod.
The painting references Berninghaus’ “Peace and Plenty,” in which a pueblo woman cradles a bowl of dried corn.
In Almeida’s version, “The man is taking a photo. The woman is on her MacBook,” Phetteplace said. Nobody’s actually in the moment; they’re so consumed with their media.”
Other artists produced a gentler homage.
Idaho painter Matthew Sievers produced “Ode to Berninghaus,” a depiction of two pueblo people and their horses overlooking dramatic mesas.
The piece echoes the original “The Edge of the Foothills.”
“His interpretation is a little more in
line with the original; it’s not satirical,” Phetteplace said. Sievers eliminated a horse and figure in the background; he transformed the mountains into mesas.
“His paintings are all about mark-making,” Phetteplace said of Sievers; “(using) everything from brushes to windshield wipers to kitchen tools.”
Santa Fe’s Erin Currier portrayed Berninghaus as a saint, based on a Laura Gilpin photograph.
“There’s a running theme in her work where she does these saint portraits where she kind of canonized them.”
California artist Rimi
Yang painted “Joyful Girl” after Berninghaus’ “Pueblo Indian Woman of Taos.”
The original shows the woman draped in a dark blanket, holding a horse by its reins.
Yang’s figure wears a boldly ethnic patterned skirt and elaborate costume.
“The patterning on the skirt feels almost Moroccan,” Phetteplace added.
“Her paintings tend to be bold and expressive, with a lot of texture, color and pattern work.”
Phetteplace hopes to curate similar artist tributes in future exhibitions.
“I just love where it’s taken people,” she said. “All of our artists were interested.”