Out West: Early Twentieth Century Gay and Lesbian Artists of New Mexico

A presentation by Christian Waguespack

Tuesday, July 9, 2024, at 3 pm MT at El Zaguán, 545 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM
Free for HSFF Members. $10 for non-members.
Please register in advance. Members email Hanna Churchwell at hanna@historicsantafe.org.

The Historic Santa Fe Foundation is pleased to present a lecture by Christian Waguespack, Curator of Twentieth Century Art at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, titled Out West: Early Twentieth Century Gay and Lesbian Artists of New Mexico. The talk is scheduled for Tuesday, July 9, 2024, at 3 pm in the sala at El Zaguán, 545 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM. The talk is free for HSFF members and $10 per-person for non-members. Advance registration is encouraged.

ABOUT THE TALK

This talk will offer a survey of the lives and work of gay and lesbian artists in New Mexico from the early twentieth century through the Stonewall Riots of 1969 when the face of queer representation changed dramatically in the United States. While some artists built lives for themselves in states less welcoming to queer people, other areas, including northern New Mexico promised freedom and a sense of community denied to them elsewhere. Yet even in the most open communities, the impact of these early queer artists has yet to be fully recognized. Queer communities played a significant role in developing the art communities throughout this region, although this influence is rarely acknowledged.

This lecture is based on the exhibition Out West: Gay and Lesbian Artists in the Southwest 1900-1969, currently on view at the New Mexico Museum of Art. This project recognizes the contributions of gay and lesbian artists to the history of modern art in the Southwest. Despite social stigmas of the time certain communities in the Southwest offered a safe space for early queer artists to live unhampered by the stigmas and social restrictions present in other parts of the country. This exhibition will explore the influential careers of LGBTQ artists, including Cady Wells, Marsden Hartley, Russel Cheney, and Agnes Sims in the Southwest and how their legacy remains a vital part of Southwestern cultural history.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Christian Waguespack has served as Curator of Twentieth Century Art at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe since 2017 where he has organized over twenty exhibitions, conducts research on the Museum’s collection focusing on modern art and the art of the American Southwest, and has lectured widely on various aspects of New Mexican art history across the country. His exhibitions at the New Mexico Museum of Art have included broad surveys of southwestern art history and deep dives into the careers of historic artists and art groups from the area, bringing fresh and timely new looks at the regional art of the last century.

Before coming to the New Mexico Museum of Art he has curated exhibitions for the University of New Mexico Art Museum and the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, the Center for Creative Photography, and Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona. He has managed museum donor groups from the Tucson Museum of Art and the Center for Creative Photography and worked with a number of private and nonprofit galleries in New Mexico and Arizona.

Waguespack holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Arts in Museum Studies and Art History with a Minor in Arts Administration from the University of New Mexico.