Common Ground

Edward Gonzales, Patrocino Barela (after Prather), ca. 1981. Acrylic on canvas. Museum purchase 1983 General Obligation Bonds.

I chose to analyze the exhibit Common Ground: Art in New Mexico located at the

Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. The mission statement of the museum is stated on the

museum’s website:

For over forty years, the Albuquerque Museum has provided a rich cultural voice in Albuquerque, the state of New Mexico and the Southwest region. It continues to inspire the community through exhibitions on local history and art, while also attracting exhibitions from major institutions around the world. The Museum's regional art collection focuses on the American Southwest, and its history and photoarchive collections primarily relate to the life and culture of Albuquerque and the middle Rio Grande Valley. As such, the Museum enriches its visitors through lectures, tours, classes, concerts and exhibition openings, regularly provided to the community in a breath-taking architectural setting. The Museum is a rich voice of culture in the Southwest. The Museum’s purpose is to share knowledge and appreciation of art and history, collect and preserve objects of historic and artistic interest, and encourage continued excellence of the cultural life of the community.

The theme of the installation is celebration of the diverse community of artists living in or

influenced by the Southwest region.2 The theme of Common Ground can be seen in congruence

with the mission statement of the museum; all throughout the exhibition there are works of art by

artists of the various cultures that inhabit the Southwest region, seemingly embracing the

fraternization of cultures. The museum is funded by the city of Albuquerque as well as the

Albuquerque Museum Foundation. While the financial interests of funders can shape the content

and ideas presented by exhibitions, the Albuquerque Museum Foundation is a nonprofit

organization which seems to hold the same goals and ideals as the museum itself. In fact, the

mission statement of the Foundation is an echo to that of the museum: “The mission of the

Albuquerque Museum Foundation is to further the cultural and educational programs at the

Albuquerque Museum through broad public and private gifts and volunteer support.”

The objects displayed belong to the permanent collection of the museum. As curator

Andrew Connors explained in his interview with The Morning Brew4, Common Ground has been

an exhibit at the Albuquerque Museum for nearly thirty years; however, the installation has

recently been revamped. Connors stated that while they do rotate new work in and out the

museum will keep favorites on display for each new interpretation of the exhibit but unlike past

installations, this new interpretation is set up into themes within the main theme of the show; for

example, certain areas of the exhibit are dedicated to portraits of “real New Mexicans” while

others are purely of New Mexico’s beautiful landscapes. Many of the works of art seemed to fit within the theme of their section along with the theme of the show, however there were a few

anomalies; for example, there were two works of art in the cultural artifact section that did not

seem to fit within the Southwest region. The first was Bhumisparsa Mudra by Patrick Nagatani

which depicted an image of a Buddha performing the “earth affirming” hand gesture called a

mudra. While Nagatani eventually resided in New Mexico, this artwork has seemingly no

connection to Southwest culture. The second was Music Box by Henriette Wyeth depicting her

grandson posed in front of a music box which seemed out of place among the surrounding art. Lastly, and this may just be my opinion, but the entire contemporary section, with a few

exceptions, near the end of the installation does not seem to have any place or anything in

common with the theme of the exhibit. The only notable thing is that the artists who created

these pieces at one point resided in New Mexico; however, there was no nod to any of the

various cultures or landscapes or true New Mexicans. It should be emphasized that the exhibit

works together based on compositional qualities, as stated earlier it is very clearly organized

thematically. Because the show was divided up into very apparent themes it gave me a

preconception on how to interpret the art in that section. Had the exhibit been organized

chronologically, like in previous versions of this exhibit, I might have examined certain pieces

differently.

There were recognizable verbal and visual clues within this installation that influenced

the way I viewed objects and moved around. As we discussed earlier in class, there are times

when a museum will collect something and proclaim it art even if the original purpose of the

object was not meant to be perceived as art; in other words a museum will place its own

perception of visual culture onto an object and completely eradicate the initial intention of the

object. In the case of Common Ground, if one can clearly comprehend that there is one section whose theme is “Cultural Artifacts” then there is no occurrence of cultural appropriation in

which something is mistaken for art; for example, there are ancient ceramic bowls displayed in

this section whose purpose was perhaps not to be perceived as art but it does not necessarily

seemed like the installation was presenting it as so. The text panels were also something I took

into consideration when analyzing art and how it was placed. A lot of the times the text panels

described what the object was or who the artist was. I would have liked to have seen more

reasons why the artist created what they did. As for the structure of the exhibit, there were some

formal elements that influenced the direction I took when walking about the show. Originally I

had entered the exhibit from the exit – I couldn’t figure out how the curator wanted me to walk

through and when I found the entrance I walked through once more the way I was intended to

and it made a lot more sense. When you first walk in the dark wine colored walls and curve of

the wall with the description of the exhibit attract you to go straight into the landscape section

and then continue onto into the right wing where the wine colored walls continue. It transforms

into olive painted walls that contain the portrait section and loops again once more to continue

on. It is significant to note that the lighting in these two sections plays with shadow and draws

attention to the paintings and images on the walls. This contrasts with the following section,

Cultural Artifacts, which attracts you with its bright white walls and illumination. The remainder

of the exhibit mimics this thematic section with its walls and lighting. After turning right out of

the Cultural Artifacts section you enter the abstract section of the exhibit which forces you

around the room by placing a display case in the middle of the room. The entrance into the final

section, Contemporary Art, is located at the left of the previous room and leads off into the exit.

Overall I was very impressed with the show. The exhibit was in perfect harmony with the

mission of the museum and the stated theme of the installation; the exhibition beautifully illustrates the various cultures that have developed in the Southwest region along with

celebrating the diverse artists from Albuquerque. The broad range of examples of artwork and

different interpretation of similar concepts really illustrated how diverse Albuquerque is.