The Taos Public Library's Santos Nuevos y Viejos opened May 30, pairing new and historical santero work by artists including Carlos Fresquez, Luis E. Barela, Lorrie Garcia, and Isabela Chavez. A youth component, My Modern-day Retablo: Heroes and Protectors of New Mexico's Future, asks kids to carve the same devotional form around present-day subjects.
The pairing isn't new. In 1936, Patrocinio Barela's woodcarvings went to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where critics weren't sure whether to call his work folk art, fine art, or something they didn't have a category for yet. He called himself a carpenter.
Santero woodcarving has never really separated into "traditional" and "contemporary" on its own — that's a distinction visitors bring with them. Putting old and new pieces in the same library room this month just makes it harder to keep pretending otherwise.