This is a reprint of a 1938 WPA project that produced 50 handcolored-prints of existing Spanish Colonial pieces. There are prints of santos, altar screens, straw-work, tin-work, colcha, furniture, and decorative motifs. The Portfolio has not been seen by many because after the project was completed it was recalled by the Federal Works Project as being too primitive. They just didn't understand the process or the significance of the pieces. The accompanying booklet authored by E. Boyd Hall has also been reprinted. The reprint is dedicated to Eliseo Rodriguez of Santa Fe, the lone remaining artist of the project. This is a long forgotten, but important piece of New Mexico's history.
The WPA Portfolio was commissioned in 1937 and many area artists hand-colored the original prints made from plates supervised by E Boyd. The booklet that accompanies the 50 color plates was also written by Boyd, who later headed the Museum of International Folk Art. 200 numbered copies of the Portfolio were designated for use by the Federal Government but it is said when the Feds saw the Portfolio they didn't understand the New Mexican santos, altar screens, tinwork, straw crosses, hide painting, furniture depicted in the paintings and ordered the Portfolios destroyed.
But as many as thirty to forty copies remain today in libraries and private collections. LPD Press reprinted the copy that they obtained through the online auction service EBAY. That copy was from a private estate but was originally sent to the Wichita Falls Public Schools in Texas.
The last remaining artist to work on the project is Eliseo Rodriguez, an award-winning Spanish Market artist from Santa Fe. According to Rodriguez, "I painted hundreds of the Laguna Altar Screen print, over and over but I never saw the entire Portfolio." He remembers painting sessions with E Boyd at his kitchen table while the project was in progress.
According to LPD Press Senior Partner, Paul Rhetts, "This is a chance for people to own a part of New Mexico's history. Many great artists like Eliseo, Louie Ewing, Gustave Baumann, Helmut Naumer, John Gaw Meem, Caddy Wells, and Paul Horgan were involved in the production the Portfolio and all of the fifty plates were made using existing Spanish Colonial art of New Mexico as the subject matter. The art is extraordinary."
The release coincides with this summer's 75th anniversary of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society and the 50th anniversary of Spanish Market
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