Previous Exhibitions

Changing Perceptions of the Western Landscape

May 18 - Sept. 1, 2013

Changing Perceptions examines the revived interest in landscape by contemporary artists, demonstrating the power of the land to speak to the imagination.

Recent works in painting, photography, printmaking, and even sculpture trace the evolving image of the landscape in art of the last 40 years. Many contemporary landscape artists explore the way that humanity has laid its hands on the land. Fences, dams, highways, and billboards appear as an acknowledgement that pristine wilderness is a rarity, foreign to most peoples' experience.

Among the diverse artists showcased are Gus Foster, Woody Gwyn,Amelia Bauer, Wes Hempel, Joanne Lefrak, Jack Loeffler, Patrick Nagatani, Donald Woodman, Erika Osborne, Ed Ruscha, Mary Tsiongas, and Vincent Valdez.

Their passionate visions of the landscape take viewers on vividly detailed journeys around the American West and into the challenging imaginations of modern day explorers.

Goya's "Los Caprichos" and Social Satire

Feb. 5, 2012 - May 13, 2012 (North Gallery)

This exhibition features an early first edition of "Los Caprichos," a set of eighty etchings by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya y Lucientes published in 1799. Included in the exhibition for comparison are other works by Goya.

To augment Goya's "Los Caprichos" prints, the exhibition will also include the work of several contemporary artists including Enrique Chagoya, Jason Garcia (Santa Clara), Roger Shimomura, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Flathead, Shoshone). Like Goya, these exceptional artists all incorporate social commentary and social critique as integral aspects of their work.

This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of Bank of America

Social Satire and Commentary from the Museum Collection

Dec. 18 , 2011 - April 8, 2012

Drawn from the Museum's extensive holdings of works on paper, this exhibition will examine artists who comment on society by drawing attention to injustice or poking fun at the human condition. Most of these objects have not previously been exhibited at the Museum and include powerful works by Barton Benes, T.C. Cannon, Mexican master Jose Luis Cuevas, Harry Fonseca, Luis Jimenez, John Sloan, and Masami Teraoka.

Major Trevanion Teel and the Civil War in Albuquerque

Feb. 19, 2012 - April 15, 2012 (East Hallway)

This exhibit relates the story of Confederate artillery commander Major Trevanion Teel and his role in the burial and subsequent unearthing of eight Mountain Howitzers in Albuquerque's Old Town Plaza. From the collection of The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History and loans courtesy Dick and Betty Teel.

Faces From Our Past, Facing The Future: Albuquerque and the Turn of the 20th Century

July 31, 2011 – April 2012

This exhibition features prints made from a collection of glass plate negatives by the Cobb family of photographers that was recently acquired by the Museum. The collection, found in its original custom crates and individual glass plate boxes dating from the late 1800s, was originally discovered in the

1960s in an Albuquerque Bekins storage unit. The collection was purchased with funding provided by individual donors in memory of Edith Kubie, Katy Lou McIntosh Ely, Carolyn Leach, Sarah Shortle Blue, Millie Santillanes, Vernon D. Robertson, Sally Stockman, and Jane Williams.

This will be the first time in Albuquerque’s history that images from this collection will be made available to the public. Approximately 80 photographs will be on display along with original packaging and more than 800 digital ../images of the collection. Many of these individuals were citizens of Albuquerque when New Mexico became a state in 1912.

Hispanic Traditional Arts of New Mexico

Sept. 18, 2011 – Jan. 8, 2012 (North Gallery)

Since its founding in 1967, The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History has quietly built an impressive and diverse collection of Hispanic Traditional Art from across the state. This exhibition, celebrating masterworks and little known gems from the permanent collection of The Albuquerque Museum, will provide a broad reaching exploration of the historical development and contemporary new directions in Hispanic traditional art.

From the colonial era to the present, Hispanic artists in New Mexico have contributed significantly to all art forms. Traditions such as religious image-making, weaving and colcha embroidery, furniture making, silverwork, straw appliqué, and tinwork have been practiced in New Mexico in some cases for more than four hundred years, and artists continue to create innovative interpretations using historical techniques. By modifying and adding their personal visions, contemporary artists keep the early aesthetics, traditional utility, subject matter, and materials alive. Providing a bold and compelling introduction to the continuing impact of the state’s rich Hispanic visual heritage, this exhibition will place historic objects from the 19th and early 20th centuries beside passionate and dynamic recent examples of the art form.

The exhibition will include masterworks from the traditions of religious image making, weaving, colcha embroidery, and filigree jewelry and will also include examples of tinwork and straw appliqué. Many additional important objects in these traditions as well as furniture and architectural woodworking can be seen in the Museum’s history exhibition, Four Centuries: A History of Albuquerque, and at the Museum’s historic site, Casa San Ysidro, the Gutiérrez/Minge House, located in Corrales.

In addition to historic objects, the exhibition includes works of art by many contemporary artists. The Museum’s collection is remarkably broad in scope; it was developed as a celebration of both adherence to historic precedent and innovation within the revival of tradition. From the beginning the museum purchased work by artists who broke new ground within the revival movement in the 1970s and thus the collection contains some very surprising and unexpected early work by artists who later became masters of the tradition.

A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls

May 8 - Aug. 21, 2011 (North Gallery)

Louis Comfort Tiffany was one of the most recognized designers of his time in decorative arts, especially in stained glass. However, some lamps, windows and other decorative objects which were originally thought to be designed by Tiffany himself, are now recognized as designed and executed by a special group of women who worked for Tiffany at the turn of the 20th century.

The “Tiffany Girls”, as they were called, worked for Louis Comfort Tiffany in the Women’s Glass Cutting Department of Tiffany Studios along with their department head, Ohio-born designer Clara Driscoll (1861-1944).

This ground-breaking exhibition explores the turn of the 20th century New York women who created many of Tiffany Studios' celebrated decorative objects. Included are approximately 70 Tiffany lamps, windows, mosaics, enamels and ceramics, as well as pages of newly discovered documents written by designer Clara Driscoll.

Numerous education programs will be presented in support of this exhibition, including a special Family Gallery and Guide, which were made possible through the generous local support of Wells Fargo. A companion catalogue will be available for sale at The Museum Gallery Store.

The exhibition at the New-York Historical Society was generously supported by Robert G. Goelet,

Barbara and Richard Debs, Mr. and Mrs. John Klingenstein, Donna and Marvin Schwartz, Barrie and Deedee Wigmore, Sue Ann Weinberg, Lois Chiles, S. Parker Gilbert, the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation, and Arlie Sulka.

The presentation in Albuquerque of A New Light on Tiffany, has been made possible through the generous local support from REDW, Garcia Infiniti, and Wells Fargo.

View a list of all of the previous exhibitions at The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History.

You may also view a list of the Museum's Exhibition Publications.