NMSU is home to vast retablo collection

Many Las Crucens may be unaware of a treasure of Hispanic Heritage housed at New Mexico State University.

The NMSU Art Museum (UAM) is home to more than 2,000 Mexican retablos, religious images painted on tin plates. Housed in UAM’s Margie and Bobby Rankin Retablo Gallery, It is the largest collection in the United States, according to the museum’s website.

“The retablo art form flourished in Mexico during the second half of the 19^th century and the early 20^th century.  Precedents for tin retablos can be traced to religious images placed in church altars and paintings on wood, copper, and canvas by European and Mexican artists created between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Also affecting this distinctly Mexican devotion are pre-Columbian precedents of small household gods and mold-made clay votive figurines. The 19^th century Mexican tin retablo combines Mexican and European influences to create a vital and unique art form,” the museum said, citing Zarur & Muir Lovell, 2001.

“From 1963 to 1973, an important art collection started with generous donations of several Mexican retablos and objects related to sacred art by Dr. and Mrs. Andrew Babey, Pamela Babey, Dr. Reginald Fisher, Dr. and Mrs. Ezra K. Neidich, C. Andrew Sutherland, Fran E. Tolland, Helen McClure and Victor E. Clarence, along with a 2019 donation by renown retablo scholar Gloria Giffords. “Precedents for these retablos can be traced to paintings on wood, copper, and canvas by European and Mexican artists between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.”

UAM, in Devasthali Hall at 1308 E. University Ave.,  at the intersection of east University and south Solano Drive, is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Designated gallery parking is available, and general parking on the NMSU campus is free on weekends and after 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.

Call the museum at 575-646-2545, email artmuseum@nmsu.edu, visit uam.nmsu.edu/collections/retablo-collection.html.