DepartmentUnited States & Canada

Truchas

NamePainting

Artist Paul D. Holman, MD (American, 1943 - 2020)

CultureAmerican

Date2009

Place madeSanta Fe, New Mexico, United States, Southwest US, North America

Mediumoil on canvas, carved wood (frame: carved poplar)

DimensionsFramed: 34 1/2 × 44 1/2 × 1 1/4 in. (87.6302 × 113.0302 × 3.175 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Estate of Paul D. Holman, MD

Object numberA.2022.70.1

Collections

ProvenanceFrom the artist’s personal collection

DescriptionHolman’s painting Truchas is a Northern New Mexico landscape, as well as the artist’s self-portrait, placing himself in the Southwestern landscape and a community that he loved. The reflection in the right read-view mirror shows the artist holding a paint brush. The emblem on the top center of the frame is the Zia symbol, New Mexico’s state symbol (though it might bear more resemblance to the emblem of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway). The painting also references Northern New Mexico’s grassroots “car culture”—as the capital of the lowrider—but also as a space where people have often explore ideas of mobility and freedom by riding the open road, whether on road trips along Route 66 or motorcycle rides.

About the painting Truchas he wrote: “Truchas is a small town on the high road to Taos. From there the Pedernal near Abiquiu may be seen. Here I was trying to get a sense of distance with the clouds. Some artistic license was taken in moving some of the buildings around in the composition. In the lower right corner may be seen a motorcycle with reflections of the artist in its mirrors. I made the carved frame of poplar wood.”