Plate 31: Our Lady of Guadalupe": From Portfolio "Spanish Colonial Designs of New Mexico" 1935 - 1942

This anonymous painting, "Our Lady of Guadalupe" from the "Spanish Colonial Designs of New Mexico" portfolio, presents us with a fascinating exercise in flattened perspective and stylized form. The palette is muted, leaning into blues and pinks, creating a serene yet graphic presence. Look at how the artist handles the Virgin’s robe, those gentle pinks! They are like a whispered prayer, rendered in watercolor. The material handling is quite thin, almost translucent, which gives it a lightness that contrasts with the graphic, almost woodcut-like quality of the surrounding geometric shapes. The rays of light emanating from behind her are stylized zig-zags of color, like a paper cutout. It reminds me of some of those early modernist explorations into folk art, like Marsden Hartley delving into the vernacular traditions of New Mexico. It's a reminder that art is always in conversation, a back-and-forth across time and cultures, forever open to interpretation.