The
Hispanic Heritage Wing of the Museum of International
Folk Art is one of the few museum wings in the U.S. which
is devoted to the art and heritage of Hispanic/Latino
cultures. In September 2008, after nearly 20 years, the
inaugural exhibition Familia y Fe came down. The
Museum of International Folk Art has embarked upon the
long anticipated remodeling and updating of the Hispanic
Heritage Wing. The Museum envisions an exciting new space
where changing exhibits can take place on a larger scale.
These exhibits will still showcase New Mexican Arts and
culture but in exciting and unique ways, relating New
Mexico to the larger Latino/Hispano communities within
our country and the rest of the Spanish-speaking world.
One of the great strengths of the collection
is the large number of everyday items - the material culture
of colonial New Mexico. Cultural change, adaptation to the
physical environment, technological innovation, and cultural
continuity can be studied in light of the implements made
or used by New Mexicans.
Bultos are three-dimensional carved wooden figures.
Made primarily of cottonwood and painted with organic pigments,
were also used in much the same contexts as the retablos.
Also exclusively religious in subject matter, the bultos
range from small, easily transportable figures for use in
homes to life-size figures and death carts used for Holy
Week and feast day processions and as imagery in churches.
Retablos are paintings on wood panels,
usually painted with organic pigments on a pine panel, range
from small, pocket-sized plaques of individual saints to
full-size altar screens with multiple images intended for
use in community churches. Always religious subjects, these
paintings were used in both homes and churches throughout
the Spanish villages of New Mexico. These paintings, together
with the bultos (sculptures), comprise the majority of the
collection.
Straw and corn husks were cut into geometric and floral
forms and used to decorate wooden objects, such as crosses
and boxes. Known as paja encrustada, this technique
which simulated wood inlay, was probably introduced to New
Mexico by the Franciscans.
The LAS Internship is intended for a female student who
is completing
advanced undergraduate course work, currently enrolled in
graduate school, or who plans graduate work in art history,
American, Chicano/Latino, or Latin American studies, folklore,
anthropology or museum studies. The next application deadline
will be in 2009, more
about the LAS Intern Program»
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