New Mexico artist Peter Hurd featured in Farm & Ranch Museum exhibit
The skies. The light. The rolling hills. The people.
An exhibition at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces captures the essence of one of New Mexico's great artists — Peter Hurd.
“Drawn to the Land: Peter Hurd’s New Mexico” features 24 paintings and some of the artist’s belongings, including one of his palettes, a pair of chaps, sombrero, guitar and polo helmet and mallet. The show, which includes loans from the Hurd La Rinconada Gallery in San Patricio, N.M., and the El Paso Museum of Art, also features a video about Hurd (1904-1984).
The exhibition opens on Nov. 16 and runs through Sept. 13, 2019.
“We’re so pleased to present the work of Peter Hurd at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum,” said Lisa Pugh, the museum’s chief curator. “Through his portraits and paintings, Hurd celebrated a uniquely New Mexican way of life and depicted the inexplicable beauty of the southern high plains in a way no other artist could.”
Hurd, who was born and raised in the Roswell area, settled in the Hondo Valley after attending West Point, serving as a war artist correspondent during World War II, and living in Pennsylvania, where he met his wife, Henriette Wyeth. The artist is celebrated for his realistic portraits and luminous southwestern landscapes that feature the vegetation, rolling hills, windmills, water tanks, and ever-changing skies of the area in Lincoln and Chaves counties.
Unlike many artists who are proficient in a few mediums, Hurd was skilled in a variety of media including oil, lithography, watercolor, egg tempera and charcoal. Light was critically important in Hurd’s work and he strove to render it accurately. Hurd felt the medium of egg tempera allowed him to truly capture the shifting light and arid landscape of New Mexico.
“If a work of art represents a particular artist’s view of the world, Peter Hurd’s work conveys how inspired he was by nature and his surroundings,” said Holly Radke, the museum’s collections manager, who curated the exhibit. “He is best known as a regionalist painter who captured the hardworking people and landscapes of southeastern New Mexico.”
By the time of his death in 1984, Hurd had become synonymous with New Mexico. His obituary in the New York Times was headlined, “Peter Hurd, Painter of Southwest.”
Crafts for Kids
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Saturday
Nov. 3: Children of all ages are welcome to come to the museum and create their own paper rocking horse while learning about how horses have been used in transportation and farming in New Mexico.
Nov. 10: Corn has been a staple of the New Mexican diet for centuries. Join the museum in making a beaded ear of corn, and try your hand at a scavenger hunt through its exhibits.
Nov. 17: Children are invited to come to the museum to make their own turkey puppet during this Thanksgiving-themed craft.
Nov. 24: Come celebrate the fall season by making a 3-D paper pumpkin.
These activities are free with regular admission ($5 for adults, $4 for senior citizens, $3 for children 4-17).
Culture Series
Francisco Bojorquez: The Cowboy Sheriff of Sierra County
Nov. 8, 7 p.m.
In this month's Culture Series, Karl Laumbach will discuss the life and times of Francisco Bojorquez, an early-day hero of Sierra County and one of New Mexico’s greatest cowboys. Admission to this presentation in the museum's theater is free.
Bojorquez is a fading legend in the memories of old timers in Sierra County. Born in California, the son of Spanish émigrés, Bojorquez was raised in Sonora where he learned the skills of a vaquero. Arriving in Sierra County in the 1880s, he rapidly established himself as a top hand on local ranches and in regional “cowboy contests” where he pitted his roping and riding skills against the best cowboys in the southwest.
The respect that made him the wagon boss on large ranches employing Texas cowboys also propelled him into political office as county commissioner, state representative and finally, county sheriff.
For the last 25 years, Laumbach has collected stories and photographs of Bojorquez and his life and times. Laumbach has pursued an archaeological career in southern New Mexico since 1974. A graduate of New Mexico State University, he spent nine years directing projects for the NMSU contract archaeology program before joining Human Systems Research, Inc. in 1983. After serving as executive director of the organization for 10 years, he now serves as associate director and is principal investigator for a wide variety of projects.
Natural Dye Workshop
Nov. 10
Ric Rao, a volunteer at the museum, will be dyeing natural fibers with seven dyes during this workshop. For more details about this day-long workshop and to register, contact Ric at ricrao615@yahoo.com or call 575-496-7678. Space is limited.
HomeGrown
November 17, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
November 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This fifth annual HomeGrown: A New Mexico Food Show & Gift Market is a two-day event showcasing the food grown in New Mexico. More than 60 vendors from around the state will sell their products and offer free samples as the gift-giving season approaches. Award-winning salsas are featured, as well as wine, pies, cookies, sauces, jams, honey, jerky, pecans, pistachios, gift baskets and more. Crafts using New Mexico resources are also part of the event.
The Museum partners with the New Mexico Department of Agriculture for this event each year, and two Ambassador Chefs from NMDA will do cooking demonstrations each day. Admission is only $5 per vehicle and the first 100 vehicles each day receive a free, burlap shopping bag.
MORE:
Tickets on sale for Cirque du Soleil production 'Corteo,' coming to Rio Rancho in April
Experience paranormal activity in haunted tour of old Doña Ana County Courthouse
Las Cruces artists Frank Ray, Bri Bagwell compete for country stardom