University Art Museum at New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Serving as an academic environment for the critical analysis of visual art in southern New Mexico.
MessageCollection: Ex-Voto Collection
The New Mexico State University Art Museum holds the largest public collection of retablos—religious images painted on tin plates—in the United States. From 1963 to 1973, an important art collection started with generous donations of several Mexican retablos and objects related to sacred art by Dr. and Mrs. Andrew Babey, Pamela Babey, Dr. Reginald Fisher, Dr. and Mrs. Ezra K. Neidich, Mr. C. Andrew Sutherland, Mr. Fran E. Tolland, Ms. Helen McClure and Mr. Victor E. Clarence, along with a recent 2019 donation by renown Retablo scholar Gloria Giffords. Presently, the Art Gallery holds more than 2,000 retablos. Precedents for these retablos can be traced to paintings on wood, copper, and canvas by European and Mexican artists between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.
All works published on Artwork Archive of the New Mexico State University Permanent Art Collection are not for sale.
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