A contingent of Santa Fe’s intellectual and philanthropic elite spent the first three decades of the 20th century working to preserve what they perceived as pre-industrial cultural and artistic practices. Their cause found a home in the New Mexico Federal Art Project (FAP), which sought to advance craftsmanship in the Spanish Colonial tradition. The New Mexico FAP teamed up with the state’s vocational schools and other New Deal programs to train artists in 18th-century Nuevomexicano art forms, including specific styles of woodwork and furniture, and to produce decorative arts for New Deal buildings.This chair and its identical twin (not pictured) are likely the product of one such workshop, perhaps the Taos Vocational School, where artist Elidio Gonzales trained as a woodworker.
This chair and its match were made to furnish the historic McKinley County Courthouse. In it, we can see the value the New Deal placed on the concept and qualities of hand-craftsmanship. The chair’s visible joinery, the slight variations in the turns of its spindles, and the delicate gouging where the spindles meet the frame are all details that call attention to the fact that this piece was made by hand.
