Plate 36: Saint Roch: From Portfolio "Spanish Colonial Designs of New Mexico" 1935 - 1942

This watercolor on paper, titled “Plate 36: Saint Roch,” is from a portfolio of Spanish Colonial designs of New Mexico by an anonymous artist. It feels light, somehow, not in a bad way. I’m thinking how the artist is making a gesture toward an image, rather than trying to represent it exactly. The way the blue watercolor washes over the figure’s robes and casts shadows is so interesting. There's this real contrast between the almost dreamy quality of the robes, and then the raw, graphic depiction of the wound on his leg. You can almost see the individual strokes of the brush there, making it so visceral. It reminds me of some of the early Renaissance paintings, where they were still figuring out how to make things look "real," but somehow that awkwardness is what makes them so moving. I can imagine someone like Forrest Bess being interested in this piece, in its strange, almost mystical approach to the human form. Anyway, it shows that art's a continuing conversation, always revisiting old ideas and finding new ways to look at them.