Our abstract art collection brings together paintings, prints, sculpture, and mixed media works that move beyond representation to engage with color, form, texture, and the deeper currents of meaning that lie beneath the visible surface of things. These are works that invite the viewer into a direct, unmediated experience of the art itself, asking for attention and rewarding it with a depth that reveals itself gradually over time.
Abstract art is work that does not attempt to represent the visible world in a recognizable way, focusing instead on the formal elements of color, line, shape, texture, and composition as expressive ends in themselves. Within abstraction there is an enormous range of approaches, from the geometric precision of hard-edge painting to the gestural energy of Abstract Expressionism, from delicate works on paper to large-scale canvases and sculptures that fill an entire room with their presence.
In the Southwest context, abstract art has a particularly interesting relationship with the visual traditions of the region. Native American art has always included a strong tradition of geometric abstraction, from the complex designs on Pueblo pottery and Navajo weaving to the symbolic imagery of hide painting and ledger art. These traditions carry specific cultural and spiritual meanings, but their formal qualities have resonated with collectors and artists working in the Western abstract tradition, creating a productive dialogue between two very different ways of thinking about non-representational form.
The story of abstract art in the Southwest is part of the larger story of American abstraction in the twentieth century. The Abstract Expressionist movement that emerged in New York in the 1940s and 1950s had a profound influence on artists across the country, and painters in the Southwest were no exception. At the same time, the geometric abstraction traditions of Native American art were gaining wider recognition as serious art, adding another dimension to the conversation about abstraction in the Southwest.
The result has been a body of abstract work that is distinctive to this region, shaped by the landscape, the cultural history, and the particular quality of light that has always made the Southwest a place where seeing feels different than it does anywhere else.
Veloy Vigil, whose paintings reveal a constant shift between Native Pueblo imagery and Abstract Expressionism, brought a masterful command of composition and his own distinctive color formulas to work that remains present in blue-chip collections both private and corporate. Mateo Romero, a Cochiti Pueblo painter who cites Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock as companions along his pathway of color and surface, uses bold gestural marks and abstract expressionist references to provide pointed commentary on contemporary Pueblo life.
Collectors drawn to the minimalist dimension of abstract art will find natural connections in our Minimalism collection, while those interested in the visionary and surrealist currents that run through some Southwest abstraction will want to explore our Surrealism collection. And for works on paper that engage with abstract ideas through printmaking and drawing, our works on paper collection offers a broad and varied selection that complements the paintings and sculptures gathered here.