Report from Santa Fe; Marsha Bol

Music Report from Santa Fe is made possible in part by a grant from New Mexico Tech on the frontier of science and engineering education for bachelor's masters and PhD degrees. New Mexico Tech is the college you've been looking for, 1 -800 -428 -T -E -C -H. I'm Larry Mills and welcome to report from Santa Fe. Our guest today is Marsha Bull, who's the director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe. It's nice to be here, Larry. It's wonderful having you because you have brought us to Santa Fe and the only destination in the United States, an exhibit called Mexican Modern Masters of the 20th century and it's showing at the Museum of Fine Arts until September 3rd, 2006. So I want you to tell us a little about your background first and then tell us how you manage to be the only place in the country to get this fabulous show. Well, I've been the director of the State Museum of Fine Arts for almost five years and I'm in New Mexico, I grew up in New Mexico,

in Albuquerque, and went through high school there and I've been working my way through museums around the United States, actually, and delighted to be back in New Mexico, almost 25 years in museums. Oh, my goodness. They are clearly my love. Yes, yes, and so if you've been here five years, I've seen many of the other special shows that you've brought. Did you bring the Frida Kahlo, Emily Carr? I wasn't responsible for bringing it, but it was the first show when I started as director, which was a great way to begin. And George O 'Keefe, let us know, forget it. It was three fabulous artists and it was a great show. And then last year, you were responsible for bringing us Nicholas and Alexander? Yes, a lot of fun that was. Well, it was extraordinary, and you know, Santa Fe is already an art destination, but it was built as the Russian summer. And they were Russian restaurants and Russian music and ballet. And it was just such an exquisite experience for

us. We just all enjoyed it so much and we learned a lot too. My goal at the Museum of Fine Arts has been to bring New Mexico art to the world and world art to New Mexico. So that's been kind of my guiding thought about how I wanted to see the museum work. And to bring art to New Mexican citizens so they wouldn't have to leave the state to see some of these things. Well, tell us a little about this show and how you managed to bring it and who some of the artists are and who chose it. Okay. Well, we are very lucky to have this show. It's really an honor because it's coming from the National Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City. And we are the only venue in the, anywhere they actually put this show together for us. It was one of those fortunate events when Secretary

Stuart Ashman, the director of the Department of Cultural Affairs, was in Mexico signing an agreement with Mexico, renewing an agreement on archeology. And so he and I had talked before he went that wouldn't it be wonderful if we could have an exhibition from Mexico. And so he forged ahead and met his counterpart there and they agreed. Which is great. And is that and they didn't consider taking this to Los Angeles or to New York or anywhere else just Santa Fe? Well, they, this is actually quite interesting because it's linked up with Mexican national elections. They thought it would be nice to have it go elsewhere after Santa Fe, but the national elections will be happening soon. And when, after those elections take place, all of the national patrimony has to be back in Mexico. And so nothing can be on loan outside of Mexico.

I have never heard of a law like that. Yes, the top. Do we have that law for other national treasures? No, we don't. But in Mexico that, that happens every time there's a national election. Are they suspecting that the loser is going to make off with a stack of Diego Rivera? Well, I'm not quite sure. But one, one reason I think is that directors of national museums are appointed by the president of Mexico. And so when there's a new president, they will either be removed or moved elsewhere. So they have to have their house and order before that happens. Very, very interesting. They'll tell us about some of the artists and how they were chosen. Well, the director of the museum in Mexico City is also the curator. And he said, I'd like to curate a show for you from the modern period. From after the Mexican Revolution was about 1920 to the early 50s. And of course, we said, hey, that's great. That's the best, you know. And

so he chose, of course, the most important names. The big three, they're called los tres grandes, Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alvaro Siqueiros. So they're all represented by multiple works. And then there's actually a total of 26 artists in the exhibition. So all of them worked within a brief 30 -year period. It's a great opportunity to see so many artists in such a short time period. And they had such an effect on art around the world, though. And this was an incredible renaissance compared to what other time in history with their renaissance such a flowering art like this. Well, the director from Mexico City actually compares it to the renaissance in Florence. Which is quite extraordinary. But in fact, it was a glorious time in Mexico. These artists were

searching for a way to create a new Mexico. They were part of the ideals that came out of the revolution. So it really was a golden age. And not only in terms of content, but in terms of form too, because they wanted the art to be for the people. So suddenly, these beautiful murals that you can still see in Mexico City. On all these buildings, there's this art. Just huge, fabulous art. It was wonderful. I don't think there had... There not been a revolution in Mexico at that time. I mean, that truly was the impetus for this art. Because after the revolution, everyone believed that it was a new era and a time for the people, a time for education of the people and these murals were intended as educational tools. It was truly art and service of society. Can we look at a few of the artists? Sure, tell us a little about them. Certainly. And we want to show some of this art, because then people will know how varied and different.

But what the quality of art, this is like the crowning jewels of this period in Mexican art. Well, it really is. Let me start with Diego Rivera, who's so well -known. And rightly so, this piece of this woman, you see, she's a working class woman. When Diego Rivera, he actually wasn't in Mexico during the revolution. He was in Europe. He had been sent on his scholarship by the Mexican government to study art in Europe. And so he, rather than attending the European Academy of Arts, he hung out with Picasso and all of the avant -garde and explored a lot of different styles of art, including Cubism. But he hadn't really figured out who he was as an artist until he came back to Mexico. And this was after the revolution. And he had a commission to do

a mural for the government. They sent him to the Yucatan, to Southern Mexico. And that was a revelation for him. He saw the Mayan ruins, the pre -Columbian heritage, and he saw the indigenous people. They're very traditional people. And he realized that was, in his mind, the true Mexico. So he began to paint the working class people of Mexico and with great dignity. So this painting is a good example of that. Do you have any more, Diego Rivera? We do. There's actually five Diego Rivera's in the show. Let me show you another one. Just a second. This is an interesting painting. It's a nighttime painting that he did of a tree with composinos sitting in the tree. It's rather like one of his murals that has a tree, but it has the people falling out of the tree. And apparently, a lot of his easel paintings

he did is studies for his murals. But this one was done during a time period when John Houston was in Mexico filming a movie. And there's some speculation that Diego Rivera was watching that and saw the people sitting in the trees. And they paint together. Yes, wonderful, wonderful. Yeah, the light in that one is particularly... It is. It's very interesting. The light for the nighttime. This is a painting by a woman artist that we don't know in the United States. Maria Skierlo, but she is very well known in Mexico. And up until maybe a decade or so ago, was the most famous woman artist in Mexico until Frida Kahlo gains such a claim. And Maria Skierlo, as a young woman, went to the National School of Arts where Diego Rivera was director. He thought she was one of the

most promising students. And she spent her career painting also the indigenous people of Mexico. So it's a very nice portrait. It may be a self -portrait. Now there's some question about that. Let me show you some more. Rufino Tamayo is, of course, a well -known name in Mexican art. And this is a particularly fine example. What are my favorites? It's really delightful. It's a lovely painting. This is called the Happy Drinker. And we don't know exactly what prompted him to paint this. But it's very cubist in style. And certainly the Mexican artists knew what was going on in Europe. And European artists knew what was going on in Mexico as well. Maybe we have time for one more. You could show us one more.

Oh. Well, this painting, make sure it's open so you can see this one right here, is more startling, because you see this giant sort of strange head that's over, or creature that's overshadowing the composinos of Mexico. It's by Jesus Guerrero Galán. And he must have been looking at an Aztec stone sculpture, actually, because it's a direct painting of the plume serpent. It was also very well -known in Pueblo pottery here. So we can assume that what he's saying in this painting is because it's called our past, that the pre -Columbian past loomed large over the Mexican people. Well, now from where we are now, this is also the Mexican past, not

quite so historical, but it is the early part of the last century. And so how does this influence continuing in the arts today? Well, this certainly, these are models for artists that are working today, although in Mexico, there are just doing all kinds of work, but certainly they always look back at these grandmasters. These artists also influence the art in the United States, actually. In fact, if it weren't for the muralists in Mexico, we would not have had the WPA murals here in the United States. A friend of FDRs said, you really need to look at what's going on in Mexico, the way the government is supporting the artists. And so FDR, look guys, that's a good idea. I think I'll start the WPA mural program. Oh, and those are such treasures. And we have so many of them in Mexico.

We do. And we do right here in Santa Fe, in our courthouse, in our old post office. And if the University of New Mexico, actually in the administration building, there's a mural by one of these artists that's in our show. You cannot hear this show without realizing what a political statement they're making. So how were you able to balance the politics, which is workers in the field and stuff like that?