Public Art Part V - Old Town Gate and Albuquerque Museum

This is the eastern gate into Albuquerque's Old Town. It's a towering, tiled mosaic on stucco. As you've probably already noticed, tile mosaics are a very popular art form here, as are bronze sculptures and painted murals.





The parking lot just outside the gate serves Old Town and the Albuquerque Museum, which is adjacent. Below you'll see just a small portion of the outside public art on the grounds of the Museum.

This one is titled "Howl"

A close-up of "Howl."

Don't ask me to explain it, but the title of this piece of art is "Tea and Steam."

"Bear With Planes and Clouds." Hmmm.

"Mother Earth."

This grouping, below, is of modern-day Albuquerquians, enjoying a pleasant day in the sunshine.


I've included a couple close-ups. When I first walked past this exhibit, I did a double-take, because the man with the newspaper reminded me of my dad. Those of you who knew him might also see a similarity (see second close-up, below).

This next series, also on the grounds of the Museum, is called "La Jornada" (The Journey). It commemorates the arrival, in 1598, of Governor Juan de Onate, who left Santa Barbara, in presdent day Chihuahua, leading an expedition bound for New Mexico. Nearly 600 settlers accompanied him, along with Mexican Indian allies and Franciscan friars. Onate founded the first European settlement in New Mexico (Juan de Onate being born in America, of Spanish parents). From what I have read, there was heated controversy over the erection of this monument, since Onate is said to have carried out a bloody retribution against the Acoma Pueblo Indians for the killing of Juan Zaldivar, Onate's nephew, and several of his men in a skirmish at Acoma (near Albuquerque).

You will notice, in the background of two of these pictures, that you can see a rocket. The rocket stands in the corner of the parking lot of the National Atomic Museum. According to a sign posted beside it, it is a Redstone rocket (the type of rocket, with a Mercury capsule, that carried Commander Alan B. Shepherd into suborbital flight from Cape Canaveral, in 1961).