Harwood Foundation

About this property

The Harwood Museum of Art is located in Taos, New Mexico. Founded in 1923 by the Harwood Foundation, it is the second oldest art museum in New Mexico. Its collections include a wide range of Hispanic works and visual arts from the Taos Society of Artists, Taos Moderns, and contemporary artists. In 1935 the museum was purchased by the University of New Mexico. Since then the property has been expanded to include an auditorium, library and additional exhibition space. The Harwood Museum of Art in Taos has a permanent collection of over 1,700 works of art and 17,000 photographic images. The collection dates from the 19th century to the present and reflects the multicultural heritages and influences of the Taos artistic community. The categories of works include: Hispanic, Taos Society of Artists, Taos Moderns, Contemporary, and Prints, Drawings and Photographs. The Harwood Museum has a collection of a broad range of Hispanic works, including paintings, tinware and woodworking reflecting craftsmanship going back to the beginning of Spanish colonization of New Mexico. Too expensive to have furniture shipped from Mexico City, New Mexicans established carpentry shops in late 18th century and early 19th century where carved furniture was made, such as cajas (storage chests), harineros (grain chests), and trasteros (kitchen cupboards). The Valdez workshop in Taos County created works distinguished by incised asterisk markings; Some works were brightly colored in red and blue. Tin work served as an integral part of Hispanic religious culture during the 19th century. Tin cans, glass panes and religious prints were fashioned into devotional objects. There were 13 workshops in New Mexico from 1840 to 1915 thirteen workshops in New Mexico. By the turn of the century tinsmiths primarily created items for the home, such as sconces, lanterns and trinket boxes. Santos, sacred images of Roman Catholicism for homes and churches, were made in New Mexico since the late 1700s. The museum's collection includes works donated by Mabel Dodge Luhan made between 1800 and 1850 and contemporary works. The Harwood has the largest publicly owned collection of secular works by Patrociño Barela (1900–1964), an acclaimed leader for contemporary santeros. Some of the museum's pieces include carvings show at a premier at Museum of Modern Art in New York. During the 1920s and 1930s there was Spanish Colonial revival reflected in many forms of art, including furniture, tinware, architecture and colcha embroidery. State and Federal government and private foundations funded programs to hire instructors to teach craftsmanship. The New Deal's Taos Crafts smithing and furniture school resulted in pieces made in wood and tin, such as tin work chandeliers, armarios (cabinets), bancos (benches), mesas (tables) and sillas (chairs) that are used in the gallery or offices of the Harwood.

Location

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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