Plate 14: Main Altarpiece, Chimayo: From Portfolio "Spanish Colonial Designs of New Mexico" 1935 - 1942

This anonymous print of the Main Altarpiece, Chimayo, from the portfolio "Spanish Colonial Designs of New Mexico" uses watercolor and ink to render the image. I love the directness of this image. It's like a play on perspective, a sort of flattened space where everything is equally important. The palette is restrained, almost humble: pinks, greens, and blues, all contained by these assertive black outlines. Look how the pink bleeds unevenly in the central panel, creating a sort of halo or aura. It makes me think about folk art, the kind of art that isn’t slick or polished, but is all the more powerful for its imperfections. There’s something so vulnerable and human about that kind of mark making. This piece reminds me a little of Marsden Hartley, or maybe even some of the early German Expressionists, in the way it simplifies and distorts form for emotional impact. It's like a conversation across time, a shared language of the heart.