Margarete Bagshaw

Art Brokerage: Margarete Bagshaw American Artist: b. 1964-2015. She was born in Albuquerque in 1964 into a family of internationally acclaimed women artists (her mother is Helen Hardin, her grandmother Pablita Velarde). Through them, she earned a grounding in the traditional themes of Native American art, but her heart pulled toward the parallel universe beyond her family’s doors: the anything-goes ethos of the 1960s and ‘70s that aimed at breaking boundaries. Initially, one “boundary” she broke was following in the family way. Although she originally rejected a career as an artist, at 26, she found herself married, pregnant with her second child, and struck with an insomnia that compelled her toward making art. Using a chalky palette reminiscent of her mother’s and grandmother’s, her hand moved to the rhythmic imagery of Cubist and Bauhaus artists. Painting in complex compositions that feature a dynamic color palette, her work is instantly recognizable. Her large monumental canvases honor the work of her mother and grandmother and are truly a testament to the significant place the women of her family hold in the art world – together they form the only documented full-time professional female painting dynasty ever – anywhere! A fearless Modernist, Bagshaw’s recent achievements include opening a Santa Fe museum dedicated to Native American women artists, writing a memoir, and populating a solo 20 year retrospective show at the New Mexico Museum of Indian Arts & Culture. Those successes and their rapid pace make it hard to believe she once restricted herself to faded pastels, smaller canvases, and a life held in limbo. Listings wanted.