Images of Southwest fill exhibit artworks
Images of Southwest fill exhibit artworks

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — One gets a feeling for many of the qualities that have made New Mexico "the land of enchantment” from an exhibit of works by Ernest L. Blumenschein (1874-1960).

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Called "In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein,” the show of 61 paintings and five illustrations is at The Albuquerque Museum of Art, 2000 Mountain View Road NW.

A native of Pittsburgh, raised in Ohio, Blumenschein was a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists with fellow artist Bert Phillips in 1898.

Evening light in the Rio Grand Gorge and a pale full moon rising over the mountains seem to have cast a spell on a man sitting on a rock watching over his flock in a 1939 oil called "Afternoon of a Sheepherder.”

No less visually seductive is "Enchanted Forest,” an oil begun in 1925 in which a tall stand of aspen and spruce trees provides a magnificent background for a circle of pueblo deer dancers.

Violence is strongly suggested, yet at the same time almost choreographed in Blumenschein's "The Extraordinary Affray (Indian Battle).” A warrior appears to be about to scalp another man, surrounded by other Indian fighters, onlookers and the fallen, in this powerfully stylized oil, painted in 1920, and reworked in 1927.

A robed Indian man holding a black vase glares at viewers defiantly, in front of a colorful, compressed, symbolic background, in a 1921 oil "Superstition.”

Masterful, too, are a pair of group portraits of a serious public subject and a much more light-hearted private event, both begun in the 1930s.

One portrays the 12-man "Jury for (the) Trial of a Sheepherder for Murder,” and the other, called "Ourselves and Taos Neighbors,” depicts the artist's family and friends.

Even more realistic, in some ways, but at the same time charged with symbolic meaning and imagination, are many more of the portraits in the exhibit.

Two Indian men, one robed and one wearing a dark western hat and braids, eye us warily in front of a stand of evergreen trees in "Star Road and White Sun,” one of the finest works in the show.

Equally memorable is Blumenschein's oil of a "New Mexico Peon” or "Taos Plasterer,” begun in 1930, reworked in 1934 and finished in 1942.

A dark, earthy figure in front of a sunlit grain field, Blumenschein's plasterer seems strong yet a little world-weary, looking at us from under a straw hat as he leans on a trowel in his left hand.

More mysterious is Blumenschein's early, 1913 oil of "The Peacemaker (The Orator),” gesturing broadly in front of a gorge to a man wearing a headdress.

Intriguing early 20th century works include gouache studies of Isadora Duncan dancing, illustrations of literary works, and a small oil of "Our Paris Apartment,” done in about 1906.

Nicely complementing Blumenschein's early oils of urban subjects are three late paintings of train yards and "Downtown Albuquerque,” seen from a slightly elevated, aerial perspective.

The Blumenschein exhibit is highly recommended.

The exhibit is accompanied by a magnificent catalog, published in hardback and paperback by the University of Oklahoma Press.

— John Brandenburg

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