UNM Art Museum

I met the epitome of my art toleration.  As you know I put art into three categories; Art I like, Art I don’t like, and how the hell is this even considered art?  My experience came at the University of New Mexico Art Museum. The museum's permanent collection includes nearly 30,000 objects, making it the largest collection of fine art in New Mexico.

The UNM Art Museum is first and foremost a teaching museum. The museum was founded in 1963 and its collections have grown exponentially over the years reflecting the university’s unique location, the museum’s status as a resource, and the interests of its supporters.
The Museum’s collection includes painting, photography, prints, and sculpture with particular strengths in American prints and works by the Transcendental Painting Group. It also houses the estate collection of Raymond Jonson and Clinton Adams and is the archive for the Tamarind Lithography Workshop and the Tamarind Institute. Begun by Van Deren Coke and enhanced by Beaumont Newhall, the vast works on paper collection includes over 10,000 photographs and early cased objects, more than 10,000 prints, which date from the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) to the present day, and nearly 1,500 drawings.
As any good museum, UNM’s art museum rotates display frequently.  Being a university art museum I expect to see a wide variety of art types as well as a good mix of student and professional pieces.  The UNM museum has a very diversified collection including sculptures, lithographs, paintings, and photographs.  Most of the collection is very good but there was a piece by Robert Ryman that is a square white canvas painted…you guessed it…entirely white in an off white frame.   

 The placard that explains the art piece basically says if the viewer doesn’t appreciate his work it is because the museum failed to hang it on a wall that complements the piece!  Really!I can’t wait for your black square in a black frame period! The museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm and Saturday from 10:00 am – 8:00 pm It is closed on Sundays, Mondays and major holidays.  Admission is FREE and open to the public, a $5 donation is suggested to support exhibitions.  There are university lots with metered public parking nearby.