Transforming Images
New Mexican Santos in-between Worlds
Will be published approx. on 29. August 2006
Book
Hardback
376 pages
978-0-271-02690-9 (ISBN)
Description
"Style" has been one of the cornerstones not only of the modern discipline of art history but also of social and cultural history. In this volume, the writers consider the inadequacy of the concept of style as essential to a person, people, place, or period. While the subject matter of this book is specific to religious practices and artifacts from New Mexico between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, the implications of these investigations are far reaching historically, methodologically, and theoretically.
The essays collected here explore the Catholic instruments of religious devotion produced in New Mexico from around 1760 until the radical transformation of the tradition in the twentieth century. The writers in this volume make three key arguments. First, they make a case for bringing new theoretical perspectives and research strategies to bear on the New Mexican materials and other colonial contexts. Second, they demonstrate that the New Mexican materials provide an excellent case study for rethinking many of the most fundamental questions in art-historical and anthropological study. Third, the authors collectively argue that the New Mexican images had, and still have, importance to diverse audiences and makers.
The distinctiveness of New Mexican santos consists not only in their subjects (which conformed to Catholic Reformation tastes) but also in elements that may appear to have been "merely decorative": graphically striking and frequently elaborate abstract design motifs and landscape references. Despite their anonymity, the images are, as a group, readily distinguished from local products anywhere else in the Spanish colonial world. This distinctiveness suggests that we should inquire not so much about the individual identities of their makers as about the collective identity of the society and place that produced and used them.
The essays collected here explore the Catholic instruments of religious devotion produced in New Mexico from around 1760 until the radical transformation of the tradition in the twentieth century. The writers in this volume make three key arguments. First, they make a case for bringing new theoretical perspectives and research strategies to bear on the New Mexican materials and other colonial contexts. Second, they demonstrate that the New Mexican materials provide an excellent case study for rethinking many of the most fundamental questions in art-historical and anthropological study. Third, the authors collectively argue that the New Mexican images had, and still have, importance to diverse audiences and makers.
The distinctiveness of New Mexican santos consists not only in their subjects (which conformed to Catholic Reformation tastes) but also in elements that may appear to have been "merely decorative": graphically striking and frequently elaborate abstract design motifs and landscape references. Despite their anonymity, the images are, as a group, readily distinguished from local products anywhere else in the Spanish colonial world. This distinctiveness suggests that we should inquire not so much about the individual identities of their makers as about the collective identity of the society and place that produced and used them.
Reviews / Votes
"This manuscript is quite unlike anything yet published on New Mexican colonial-period material. Long overdue, it not only brings together a wealth of new material, but it also addresses the region with an academic sophistication and respect that has been lacking, problematizing religious artworks with a strong theoretical underpinning and an interdisciplinary approach. Overall, the anthology chides and corrects conventional Eurocentric scholarship that devotes most attention to categorizing and identifying iconographic and stylistic patterns and continues to be inattentive to the reception, function, and bicultural production of artifacts. Particularly noteworthy is the effort to underscore the strong indigenous influence in colonial arts through both authorship and artistic/cultural influences during the campaign to evangelize and Hispanize the Amerindian population. By and large, the artworks are situated in a well researched social, political, historical context with the primary focus on how Santos are made, or seen, to operate."-Jeanette Favrot Peterson, University of California, Santa Barbara "This heady book will serve as a basis for scholarly inquiry on the subject of New Mexican santos and santeros for years to come, and is a solid contribution to the field."
-Charles Bennett New Mexico Magazine "Together with the other contributors, these authors investigate anthropological, historical, demographic, and ethical questions bearing on this art. They have produced a book to be reckoned with by all serious students of the subject."
-C.W. Talbot Choice "Overall, the volume and its authors display an impressive breadth and thoroughness of research. The book itself contains a remarkable quality of images, many of which are color. Furthermore, anyone searching for more details on santos will be delighted to find the exhaustive endnotes and twenty-four page consolidated bibliography.
With this intellectually rigorous volume in hand, readers will gain a sound understanding of the complexities and challenges accompanying the study of these devotional objects. Moreover, they will acquire a broad, detailed introduction to important issues in contemporary art-historical scholarship: theoretical, methodological, and ethical. Transforming Images will no doubt be a catalyst for a new and exciting era of Santos scholarship."
-Lauren Grace Kilroy CAA Reviews "Transforming Images is an oversize volume that combines the aesthetic values of a coffee table book with deeply theoretical and well-researched academic articles. Especially notable are the 91 color and 114 black and white images that beautifully supplement and illustrate the textual arguments. It is in the specifics of simultaneous, multiple, and unresolved meanings that this text is most provocative and it is in this way it serves as a model for other works."
-Michael L. Trujillo Museum Anthropology "This heady book will serve as a basis for scholarly inquiry on the subject of New Mexican santos and santeros for years to come, and is a solid contribution to the field."
-Charles Bennett New Mexico Magazine "Transforming Images is an oversize volume that combines the aesthetic values of a coffee table book with deeply theoretical and well-researched academic articles. Especially notable are the 91 color and 114 black and white images that beautifully supplement and illustrate the textual arguments. It is in the specifics of simultaneous, multiple, and unresolved meanings that this text is most provocative and it is in this way it serves as a model for other works."
-Michael L. Trujillo Museum Anthropology "Together with the other contributors, [Claire Farago and Donna Pierce] investigate anthropological, historical, demographic, and ethical questions bearing on [New Mexican santos]. They have produced a book to be reckoned with by all serious students of the subject."
-C. W. Talbot Choice
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
University Park
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Illustrations
9 Charts; 3 Maps; 91 Halftones, color; 114 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 229 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
1760 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-271-02690-9 (9780271026909)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Claire Farago is Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is the author of Leonardo Da Vinci' '"Paragone": A Critical Interpretation with a New Edition of the Text in the Codex Urbinas (1992).
Donna Pierce is Curator of Spanish Colonial Art at the Denver Art Museum and the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art in Santa Fe. She is co-author of Cambrios: The Spirit of Transformation in Spanish Colonial Art (1992) and Spanish New Mexico: The Spanish Colonial Arts Society Collection (1996).
Donna Pierce is Curator of Spanish Colonial Art at the Denver Art Museum and the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art in Santa Fe. She is co-author of Cambrios: The Spirit of Transformation in Spanish Colonial Art (1992) and Spanish New Mexico: The Spanish Colonial Arts Society Collection (1996).
Content
Contents
Acknowledgments
Illustrations
Introduction
1. Problems for Interpretation
Mediating Ethnicity and Culture
The Semiotics of Images
Reception of Sources in New Mexico
Interleaf A: Political Allusions
2. Reconstructing Ethnicity
Formative Era, 1693-1700
Dynamic Ethnicity in Eighteenth Century
Interleaf B: Research and Human Genome
Hybrid Households
3. Christian Icons, Theory and History
The Early Santeros
Interleaf C: The Life of an Artist
Hide Painting: Archival Evidence
Hide Paintings, Sources
Transforming Images
Interleaf D: Sound, Image, Identity
4. Inventing Modern Identities
Competing Religious Discourses
Tradition Reconfigured
Problems of Attribution
Santos in Contemporary Life
Interleaf E: Catholicism and Pueblos
5. Epilogue
Re(f)using Art
Notes
Consolidated Bibliography
Contributors
Photo Credits
Index
Acknowledgments
Illustrations
Introduction
1. Problems for Interpretation
Mediating Ethnicity and Culture
The Semiotics of Images
Reception of Sources in New Mexico
Interleaf A: Political Allusions
2. Reconstructing Ethnicity
Formative Era, 1693-1700
Dynamic Ethnicity in Eighteenth Century
Interleaf B: Research and Human Genome
Hybrid Households
3. Christian Icons, Theory and History
The Early Santeros
Interleaf C: The Life of an Artist
Hide Painting: Archival Evidence
Hide Paintings, Sources
Transforming Images
Interleaf D: Sound, Image, Identity
4. Inventing Modern Identities
Competing Religious Discourses
Tradition Reconfigured
Problems of Attribution
Santos in Contemporary Life
Interleaf E: Catholicism and Pueblos
5. Epilogue
Re(f)using Art
Notes
Consolidated Bibliography
Contributors
Photo Credits
Index