In 2018, the University of New Mexico Art Museum unveiled Hindsight Insight,an exhibition meant to dig deeper into the museum’s permanent collection.
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986), Grey Hill Forms, 1936, oil on canvas, 20 x 30”. Gift from the estate of Georgia O’Keeffe.
The exhibition was a success. So much so that the museum is bringing back a sequel with a tweaked theme. It’s called Hindsight Insight 2.0: Portraits, Landscapes, and Abstraction from the UNM Art Museum and it’s open now in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Funded in part by a grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the exhibition is, the museum notes, “devoted to complicating existing narratives about racism, decolonization, and gender stereotypes within museum collections while de-centering curatorial authority and institutional voice.”
Emmi Whitehorse, #156, from the series Kin Nah Zin, 1982, graphite, pastel, collage, acrylic on paper, 27½ x 39¼”. Gift of the artist.
Curator Mary Statzer says the “de-centering curatorial authority and institutional voice” part of that description is a way of saying the museum turned to students, staff and professors to help guide them toward the kind of work that should be seen. “We have a large collection and a very good one, and it wasn’t getting enough visibility. Also, the museum belongs to our students, and we want to make it more available to them, so they can use it as a community resource,” says Statzer, who calls out Collective Constructs as the force that put the exhibition together. Members of the group include Statzer, artist Jess T. Dugan, museum curator Angel Jiang and Eleanor Kane, an art and history Ph.D. candidate. “We’re striving for human collaboration within the museum and bringing new perspectives into the exhibitions.”
Marguerite Zorach (1887-1968), Women in a Garden, 1918, oil on canvas. 23½ x 19½”. Purchase with funds from the Friends of Art.
The exhibition is organized into four thematic sections: Women Depicting Women celebrates the work of women artists over 166 years; As Far as the Eye Can See features a collection of 20th-century landscapes relating to women artists and artists of color; Embodied Resonance pairs the photographic portraits of Jess T. Dugan and Anne Noggle; and Persona: Photographic Portraits features photography depicting imagery of subjects “outside the protective environment of the home or studio.”
For more information, visit artmuseum.unm.edu. —
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