Bulletin report
The NMSU Permanent Art Collection has the largest holding of Mexican retablos in the United States. The University Art Museum’s (UAM) Labor: Motherhood & Art in 2020 exhibition – the new museum building’s first exhibit, which continues through Aug. 16 – features UAM’s Margie and Bobby Rankin Retablo Gallery.
The Rankin Gallery offers a view of motherhood “by telling the story of The Virgin Mary who has represented the role of the traditional mother in the visual arts, literature and music of the Christian and Islamic worlds for thousands of years,” the museum said. “It explores Mary’s role as mother of Christ in a timeline format from Immaculate Conception to the moment her son died on the cross and she became Our Lady of Sorrows and subsequently, humanity’s ultimate mother.
“Mary’s life, as seen in these paintings on tin, is a model to so many mothers in this world who simultaneously rejoice at the moment of conception and grieve for the suffering their children will go through in life. This chronology, including the multiple traits of Mary as seen in both the retablo santos (painting of saints) and ex-votos (paintings commissioned as prayers during moments of hardship), presents an intimate look at an iconic figure who provides relief and guidance to mothers around the world.”
See www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx_OuwviZ9A&feature=youtu.be for a video walkthrough of the gallery. The gallery was co-curated by Courtney Uldrich and Silvia Marinas-Feliner.
UAM’s FLUXX: 2020 BFA Student Exhibition, Raphael Benero: 2020 MFA Thesis Exhibition, the Mullennix Bridge Gallery, the Bunny Conlon Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery and the Labor: Motherhood & Art in 2020 exhibition can be viewed at www.uam.nmsu.edu/current/.
The University Art Museum facility is closed, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.