Tuesday, July 3 I spent the entire day going to museums.
Not quite true. I started off the day at the church of San Francisco de Asis. This is the church that O'Keeffe painted. It is also the church that everybody and his dog has either photographed or painted. I'm sure that you'll recognize it. It has beautiful, almost organic adobe architecture. At some point soon I'll manage to post some pictures on here and you'll be able to see what I'm talking about.
The church was built at some time around 1815. No one is sure of the exact date of construction, but it is magnificent. The interior is gorgeous with a high ceiling supported by dark wooden vigas or beams, but the truly special thing about this church is the exterior. It is re-adobed, if that is the right word, every couple of years. This adds to the softness of the shape, I think.
From there I went to the Hacienda Martinez. La Hacienda de los Martinez was built somewhere around 1804. It consists of two placitas or courtyards connected by a breezeway. Each of the rooms open on to a courtyard. Due to the climate of this part of New Mexico people lived much of their lives outside. The rooms are set up much as they would have appeared when the hacienda was in use. Up until the 1930s it was still occupied by descendants of the original Martinez family.
One of the amazing things about adobe is how it insulates. The temperature in Taos was in the high 80s but inside the adobe rooms it felt so cool you would think it was air conditioned.
While I was wandering around the hacienda I ran into a woman who was cleaning. Her name was Aurora. She walked with me through several of the rooms, in particular the sewing room. We talked about life then and now, here and there. She told me some herbs that she swears will take care of just about anything. This herb, a root called Osha, can only be dug up in September. She promised it would take care of hot flashes! After getting directions from her to the local herb store I headed on my way again.
The herb store was easy to locate using Aurora's directions and the thought crossed my mind that, since the next door was the Fourth of July, I should probably stock up on sandwich fixings and ice at the grocery store down the way.
My barrel water cooler does an excellent job. It says that ice will last five days in it, but its lasted a couple of days more than that. I bought my provisions and loaded my cooler to the top. I had it on the back seat, same as it had been the whole trip so far.
Now, maybe you can tell where this is leading, but I'll tell you anyway. When a backwoods New Mexico road shows a sign with an arrow that says 15 mph they mean it. I came around a gentle curve in the road. I saw the sign and I swear I slowed down to 15 mph. I had one of those moments when you can see what is about to happen and there is nothing you can do but say, "No, no, no . . . . " The turn in the road was to the right. The cooler had been seated behind me. As five gallons of water and ice cascaded onto the floor of the truck all I could do was watch. I pulled over as soon as I possibly could and began bailing all that water and ice out on the New Mexico dust.
All I could do was laugh. I seem to be getting pretty good at laughing at myself.
I took my cooler that now contained a couple of inches of water and a touch of ice and I strapped that thing down. I had tie-downs in the truck and a couple of good places to hook it to. I wish I had thought of that before, but it didn't topple over for the first six days. Oh well, . . . . .
Next stop the Harwood Museum of Art. Their current exhibit is Richard Diebenkorn in New Mexico. Diebenkorn earned his Master's Degree from the University of New Mexico and the Harwood Museum is run by the university. I like his work, but I really came to see the permanent exhibit of Agnes Martin's work. Agnes Martin lived in New Mexico and I have read that she knew O'Keeffe. Her paintings are exhibited in a round room with the paintings mounted around it. It is like a sun-drenched Rothko Chapel in a way. It's not the dimensions, but rather the art contained within. Both spaces are lit with natural light, but the Rothko Chapel's light is diffuse and the Agnes Martin room is lit by a skylight which floods the room with New Mexico sun, not directly, but it is well lit. There are four cube seats by Donald Judd in the center of the room. The paintings are a series. If you know Agnes Martin's work I won't have to say any more. If you don't know her work, the paintings are large and consist of wide light grayish-bluish strips on a whitish ground or maybe its whitish strips . . . . . Oh, you know what I mean. I spent quite a while in there listening to the comments of the other museum patrons. I'll leave it at that.
The museum also has works by other New Mexican artists. I'm on a hunt for Georgia O'Keeffe's friends and peers, Dorothy Brett and Rebecca Salisbury (Strand) James. I was delighted to find both here.
I continued on to the Blumenschein Home and Museum. I am amazed at how many working women artists there have been here in the Southwest. Ernest Blumenschein, one of the founders of the Taos artists colony, was married to a woman named Mary Shepherd Greene. She had lived in France and was a recognized artist in her own right long before meeting "Blumy". She won medals in the Paris Salon d'Automne in 1900 and 1902. You may recognize the name of the first American and woman to receive this honor. Her name was Mary Cassatt. Mary Shepherd Greene (soon to be Blumenschein) was the second. Personally, I think she was a better painter than her husband.
The Blumenschein home is well worth seeing. The building itself is lovely and has an interesting history. It is furnished with the Blumenschein's original belongings and their daughter, Helen, arranged everything as much as possible like it was when the family lived here.
Onward from there to the Millicent Rogers Museum. If you love Southwest arts and crafts, especially jewelry, you need to go here. Millicent Rogers died at the age of 50 on January 1, 1953, but in those fifty years she amassed an amazing collection of pottery (San Ildefonso Pueblo potter Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez in particular), jewelry, rugs, and religious items. She designed jewelry. One of the rooms is taken up with her illustrations of the story of the Little Mermaid. It is a truly wonderful place. The building is awesome and the location is incredible, if a touch out of the way. Why did I never hear of this woman before?
Finally, before I wore out completely I went to the Taos Art Museum. Now if architecture and woodwork are your thing you have to see this place. The Taos Art Museum is housed in the Fechin House. Built by Nicolai Fechin from 1927 - 1933, this place is unbelievable! Nicolai Fechin bought seven acres of land in Taos which included a small studio, an outbuilding and a two-story house. He renovated the studio and enlarged the house by three times its original size.
Fechin was nothing short of miraculous. He spent his days in the studio painting and then worked on the house. All of the woodwork, and I do mean all of the woodwork, in the house and studio is handcarved by Nicolai Fechin. His father was a guilder and carver of iconostatis, the eastern Orthodox Church high screens decorated with icons so he had lived with this type of handwork all his life. He carved all the woodwork with hand tools. The furniture in the house was made by him. He designed the metal work in the house, the light fixtures, door hardware, etc., and forged locally. In addition to the house he did the same with the studio out behind the house.
And now for the really sad part. He never finished the furniture for the upstairs. Once he finished the house his marriage broke up. He and his daughter left Taos. His wife got the house. She didn't live in it. She lived in the studio out back.
The current exhibition of the Taos Art Museum and Fechin House is Nicolai Fechin: A Taos Homecoming. It is a delightful show. His paintings are on the walls throughout the house. His portraits are lively and impressionistic. I particularly liked his portraits of his daughter.
After I finished touring the Fechin House I headed back to the Sagebrush Inn for a shower and a well-deserved dinner in the Los Vaqueros, the hotel's restaurant.
Then back to the room so that I could get up and go for it again!
Well, friends and neighbors, I have only made it one day further in my saga. I do believe that I'll take a break since I've been at this keyboard for a long while.
More tomorrow. I promise I'm almost up to date and I've slowed down a bit, too.
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