Transforming Images
New Mexican Santos in-between Worlds
Claire Farago author Donna Pierce author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Pennsylvania State University Press
Published:29th Aug '06
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
“Style” has been one of the cornerstones not only of the modern discipline of art history but also of social and cultural history. In this volume, the writers consider the inadequacy of the concept of style as essential to a person, people, place, or period. While the subject matter of this book is specific to religious practices and artifacts from New Mexico between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, the implications of these investigations are far reaching historically, methodologically, and theoretically.
The essays collected here explore the Catholic instruments of religious devotion produced in New Mexico from around 1760 until the radical transformation of the tradition in the twentieth century. The writers in this volume make three key arguments. First, they make a case for bringing new theoretical perspectives and research strategies to bear on the New Mexican materials and other colonial contexts. Second, they demonstrate that the New Mexican materials provide an excellent case study for rethinking many of the most fundamental questions in art-historical and anthropological study. Third, the authors collectively argue that the New Mexican images had, and still have, importance to diverse audiences and makers.
The distinctiveness of New Mexican santos consists not only in their subjects (which conformed to Catholic Reformation tastes) but also in elements that may appear to have been “merely decorative”: graphically striking and frequently elaborate abstract design motifs and landscape references. Despite their anonymity, the images are, as a group, readily distinguished from local products anywhere else in the Spanish colonial world. This distinctiveness suggests that we should inquire not so much about the individual identities of their makers as about the collective identity of the society and place that produced and used them.
“This manuscript is quite unlike anything yet published on New Mexican colonial-period material. Long overdue, it not only brings together a wealth of new material, but it also addresses the region with an academic sophistication and respect that has been lacking, problematizing religious artworks with a strong theoretical underpinning and an interdisciplinary approach. Overall, the anthology chides and corrects conventional Eurocentric scholarship that devotes most attention to categorizing and identifying iconographic and stylistic patterns and continues to be inattentive to the reception, function, and bicultural production of artifacts. Particularly noteworthy is the effort to underscore the strong indigenous influence in colonial arts through both authorship and artistic/cultural influences during the campaign to evangelize and Hispanize the Amerindian population. By and large, the artworks are situated in a well researched social, political, historical context with the primary focus on how Santos are made, or seen, to operate.”
—Jeanette Favrot Peterson, University of California, Santa Barbara
“This heady book will serve as a basis for scholarly inquiry on the subject of New Mexican santos and santeros for years to come, and is a solid contribution to the field.”
—Charles Bennett New Mexico Magazine
“Together with the other contributors, these authors investigate anthropological, historical, demographic, and ethical questions bearing on this art. They have produced a book to be reckoned with by all serious students of the subject.”
—C.W. Talbot Choice
“Overall, the volume and its authors display an impressive breadth and thoroughness of research. The book itself contains a remarkable quality of images, many of which are color. Furthermore, anyone searching for more details on santos will be delighted to find the exhaustive endnotes and twenty-four page consolidated bibliography.
With this intellectually rigorous volume in hand, readers will gain a sound understanding of the complexities and challenges accompanying the study of these devotional objects. Moreover, they will acquire a broad, detailed introduction to important issues in contemporary art-historical scholarship: theoretical, methodological, and ethical. Transforming Images will no doubt be a catalyst for a new and exciting era of Santos scholarship.”
—Lauren Grace Kilroy CAA Reviews
“Transforming Images is an oversize volume that combines the aesthetic values of a coffee table book with deeply theoretical and well-researched academic articles. Especially notable are the 91 color and 114 black and white images that beautifully supplement and illustrate the textual arguments. It is in the specifics of simultaneous, multiple, and unresolved meanings that this text is most provocative and it is in this way it serves as a model for other works.”
—Michael L. Trujillo Museum Anthropology
“This heady book will serve as a basis for scholarly inquiry on the subject of New Mexican santos and santeros for years to come, and is a solid contribution to the field.”
—Charles Bennett New Mexico Magazine
“Transforming Images is an oversize volume that combines the aesthetic values of a coffee table book with deeply theoretical and well-researched academic articles. Especially notable are the 91 color and 114 black and white images that beautifully supplement and illustrate the textual arguments. It is in the specifics of simultaneous, multiple, and unresolved meanings that this text is most provocative and it is in this way it serves as a model for other works.”
—Michael L. Trujillo Museum Anthropology
“Together with the other contributors, [Claire Farago and Donna Pierce] investigate anthropological, historical, demographic, and ethical questions bearing on [New Mexican santos]. They have produced a book to be reckoned with by all serious students of the subject.”
—C. W. Talbot Choice
ISBN: 9780271026909
Dimensions: 254mm x 229mm x 25mm
Weight: 1760g
376 pages