A major exhibition of Mexican retablos and related devotional art is on display at the New Mexico State University Art Gallery through Feb. 7, 2000. After the exhibition completes its run in Las Cruces, it will travel for three years to museums in Mexico, the United States and Spain. Retablos are paintings of sacred figures, usually oil on tin, produced primarily for home altars. It includes examples of clay figures of Aztec deities that were venerated in household altars before the arrival of the Spanish, a Baroque altarpiece showing the European influence, a typical 19th century bedroom shrine from Mexico and a contemporary altar showing how the tradition continues today. The University Art Gallery is located in Williams Hall on University Avenue, east of Solano.
Admission is free.
The gallery will close at 2 p.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve and will be closed Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Otherwise it will maintain its regular schedule during the university's winter break. Lovell said the Friends of the Gallery support group raised funds to allow the gallery to be staffed during the holidays for this major exhibition. Go back to University Communications Homepage.