Peyton Wright Gallery

Peyton Wright Gallery 20th century Modernist works; pre-Columbian ceramics, textiles and gold; New Mexican devotional artifacts

Throughout his life, Jonson was a powerful force for the development of modernism in the Southwest. According to Ed Garm...
06/16/2026

Throughout his life, Jonson was a powerful force for the development of modernism in the Southwest. According to Ed Garman, Jonson was never simply interested in his own work, but was always devoted to the development and preservation of art as a benefit to the entire community of his friends, colleagues, and students. At the University of New Mexico, where he taught from 1934 -1954, he taught and influenced such prominent artists as Richard Diebenkorn and Agnes Martin.

In 1938, along with Emil Bisttram, he co-founded the Transcendental Painting Group, a group of artists whose shared vision was to transcend material reality and advance the expression of spirituality in art through the creation of non-representational work. The Group included Agnes Pelton, Lauren Harris, Ed Garman, Robert Gribbroek, William Lumpkins, Florence Miller Pierce, Stuart Walker, and Horace Towner Pierce. In 1950, he founded the Jonson Gallery at UNM – the only space in the southwest where abstract and non-representational work was being exhibited at that time.

In 1938, Jonson’s work was profoundly impacted by his adoption of the airbrush. With the airbrush, Jonson found that he could create uniformity of surface, transparency of shapes, and smooth and subtle variations of color that had never been possible before. With the widespread availability of acrylic polymer paints in 1957, Jonson was able to free himself almost completely from technical considerations and devote himself whole-heartedly to the configurations of colors and shapes for which his later work is best known.

Jonson exhibited throughout his career in Chicago, New York, and New Mexico. His work is included in the public collections of such museums as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of New Mexico.

Raymond Jonson (1891 - 1982)

from top: Watercolor No. 6, watercolor on paper, 1947, 19 1/4” x 26”; 22 3/4” x 31” framed

Watercolor No. 22, watercolor on board, 1946, 19” x 27”; 23” x 31” framed

Newly hanging in the east side of Peyton Wright Gallery :left : Margo Hoff (1910 -2008) Jagged Sea (Ireland), 1968, acry...
06/07/2026

Newly hanging in the east side of Peyton Wright Gallery :

left : Margo Hoff (1910 -2008) Jagged Sea (Ireland), 1968, acrylic on board, 36” x 40.25”

center: Leon Berkowitz, “Cathedral No. 13,” 1968
oil on canvas, 90" x 72"

right: Hoff, “Untitled II (Sea Wall)” oil and crayon on artist board, c. 1968, 36” x 40”

The jaguar palmas of Veracruz are masterpieces of the Classic Veracruz style (roughly 600–1000 CE), named after palm fro...
05/31/2026

The jaguar palmas of Veracruz are masterpieces of the Classic Veracruz style (roughly 600–1000 CE), named after palm fronds due to their tall, often flaring shape. They are frequently represented in stone and can take the form of arms, hands, a player or a fan-tailed bird.

The palmas were part of a standard “ritual complex” of three stone items related to the Mesoamerican ballgame:

Yokes: Heavy U-shaped stones worn around the waist.

Hachas: “Axes” or thin stone heads that notched into the front ot back of the yoke.

Palmas: Tall, fan-like sculptures that sat on the front of the yoke, resting against the player’s chest.

The stone yokes, hachas, and palmas were ceremonial replicas of lighter, practical gear used during actual matches. While the stone versions could weigh up to 50 pounds, the “working” equipment, made of wood and/or leather, was designed for high-speed athletic movement.

Stone versions may have been worn briefly during pre-game ceremonies or post-game celebrations, but they have been found in high-status burials, intended to accompany the deceased into the afterlife ballgame. Stone palmas may also have served as trophies.

In Veracruz art, the jaguar wasn’t just an animal; it was a spiritual protector. Jaguars were seen as masters of the underworld and the “watery abyss.”

Many jaguar palmas – such as this one – show the animal with an open mouth or a protruding tongue, which scholars link to blood sacrifice and the regeneration of life.

Jaguar Palma, Veracruz culture, Mexico, 800-1000 CE

stone , 15.5 x 7 x 5.25 inches

Provenance:

Private collection, Morgan Hill, CA

Private collection, San Francisco, CA, 1975-1990

Private collection, Los Angeles, CA, 1990-2016

Sewell Silman (1924-1992)“Spanish Crossing”, 196336" x 48" Framed: 38" x 50" oil on masoniteSigned versoSewell Sillman w...
05/09/2026

Sewell Silman (1924-1992)
“Spanish Crossing”, 1963
36" x 48" Framed: 38" x 50"
oil on masonite
Signed verso

Sewell Sillman was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1924. He spent the fall and winter of 1943 at the Johns Hopkins University in the Army Student Training program before being sent abroad, where he was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge.

After his discharge, he returned to Georgia Tech in early 1946, with a focus on architecture. He soon went to Black Mountain College, outside of Asheville, North Carolina. It was his introduction to Josef Albers at Black Mountain College that would lead Sillman away from architecture to what would become a tireless lifelong push against the boundaries of visual possibility.

“Spanish Crossing” is part of a series that abstractly represent doors, portals, and gates. The combination of colors, however, is the true subject here.

For many artists, drawing is a mnemonic aid in a much greater plan; plot lines to be dressed with the adornment of another medium. Not so for Sillman. His prolonged, patient dedication to drawing as his primary mode of expression elevated draftsmanship far above graphic design, reporting back from beyond the thermosphere with elegant and esoteric messages which compel us to stay and practice “seeing” more fully.

Sillman'ʹs paintings, however, are of another order. Though they clearly owe a debt to the carefully calibrated geometric abstractions of Albers, they are far less academic than the maestro'ʹs works. Albers repeatedly explored color through his iconic square motif, with an inexhaustible need to be didactic, creating signature paintings clearly intended for presentation to the world. By contrast, Sillman'ʹs color explorations are deeply personal and communicate a distinct appeal to the sublime.

installation photo, right to left: “Spanish Crossing”;

Angelo di Benedetto (1913 - 1992), “Mobile” , 1968-1973
82" x 40" x 8.5"
each segment signed and dated, bottom edge

Herbert Bayer (1900 - 1985), “Four Warped Squares”, ca. 1975
30.5" x 30.5" Framed: 40.75" x 40.25"
silkscreen AP I/X
Signed and titled lower right

Teotihuacan Greenstone Mask200-650 AD4" x 4.75" x 2.25" StoneTeotihuacan stone masks are among the most iconic and enigm...
05/02/2026

Teotihuacan Greenstone Mask
200-650 AD
4" x 4.75" x 2.25"
Stone

Teotihuacan stone masks are among the most iconic and enigmatic artifacts of ancient Mexico.

Little is known about their original function, but the masks were likely used in rituals or practices associated with ancestor worship or the preservation of elite status. Although these masks have not been found in actual burial sites, they were perhaps attached to funerary bundles or placed on a shrine.

In many ancient Mesoamerican cultures, masks take on a transformative role that gives the individual a new identity and powers. If these masks were attached to funerary bundles, the mask would absorb the person's spirit (tonalli), allowing them to continue participating in the living world even after death. An important person's funerary bundle would have been displayed in temples.

Teotihuacan artists utilized a specific palette of stones to create these masks, with greenstone being the most prized for its profound spiritual associations.

None of these stones are found near the city of Teotihuacan itself, meaning the raw materials—or the finished masks—were imported from hundreds of miles away.

Margo Hoff’s output spans a wide range of forms, styles and media. Her early paintings, such as these, often featured a...
04/25/2026

Margo Hoff’s output spans a wide range of forms, styles and media. Her early paintings, such as these, often featured a stylized figure in a flat, patterned, and sometimes skewed space, evok­ing a sense of mystery or a dreamlike quality. She included images of children, holidays, animals, and seashores, still emphasizing design and geometry. With the protagonist usually absorbed in an activity, the viewer was left to construct a narrative to accompany the scene. Hoff's content is largely autobiographical, con­stantly changing with her environs and activities.

The human figure remained an important component in her work until two pivotal moments encouraged an interest in abstraction: watching Sputnik I fly over the Earth (1957) and viewing an object through an electron microscope. Hoff became increasingly aware of the space surrounding the figures, rather than just the figures themselves. The human form eventually disappeared from her work, leaving abstract shapes of color in kaleidoscopic arrangements.

Margo Hoff (1910 - 2008)

From left:

“Street Car, 21”
1938
Casein on paper
13 1/2" x 10"; 18 1/2" x 15 1/2

Signed lower left; titled and numbered verso

“The Lesson, 8”
1948
Oil and Casein on masonite
13 1/2" x 10 1/2"; 15 1/2" x 12 1/2"
Signed, titled and numbered verso

“Egyptian Fountain, 15”
1944
Oil and casein on masonite
12 1/4" x 9"; 16" x 13"
Signed, titled and numbered verso

Jan Matulka (1890-1972) "Two Figures, " ca. 1932 Watercolor, pencil, gouache on paper30 x 22 inches32 x 23.75 inches fr...
04/18/2026

Jan Matulka (1890-1972) "Two Figures, " ca. 1932

Watercolor, pencil, gouache on paper

30 x 22 inches
32 x 23.75 inches framed

"Matulka and Gorky knew each other in New York City. ... Responding to a common impulse - a shared vision of the abstract projection of the inner world - that was making itself felt in different ways, they provided a link between the first wave of modernism in the United Staes and the art that would open up at the end of the 1930s."
-Merry A. Foresta, "Matulka and the Modern Movement"

Jan Matulka was born in 1890 in a small town southwest of Prague, in what later became Czechoslovakia. In 1905 he took his first art classes in Prague, and two years later his family emigrated to the United States, settling in the Bronx, New York.

He then began taking classes at the National Academy of Design, continuing there through 1917. After he finished his training, he moved into a studio apartment in Manhattan and met Lida Jirouskova, whom he married in 1918. Throughout this time he traveled quite extensively, visiting the southwest United States, Czechoslovakia, Paris, and Prague. In 1917 he lived in New Mexico, where he adopted a cubist style and painted some the earliest modernist works in the Southwest. In addition, he also painted directly from life, recording ceremonial scenes and daily life in the Pueblos.

Beginning in the early 1930s, Matulka's participation in the surrealist movement in New York and Paris had a pronounced effect on his artistic development. Along with others, such as Gorky, he began to see Surrealism as a pathway to the personal exploration of metaphysics and an outward pictorial presentation of essentially poetic issues. One can see that Matulka was taking cues from Picasso, the same cues Gorky had taken a few years earlier.

Fantoni, “Untitled,”1976, ceramic24" x 21" x 6" signed and dated bottomMarcello Fantoni (1915-2011) was an Italian sculp...
03/28/2026

Fantoni, “Untitled,”1976, ceramic
24" x 21" x 6"
signed and dated bottom

Marcello Fantoni (1915-2011) was an Italian sculptor, ceramicist, metalworker, multi-media artist and designer.
�
Born in Florence in 1915, Fantoni began studying ceramic art at age 12 in 1927 at the Porta Romana Art Institute in Florence with ceramicist Carlo Guerrini. At the same time, he took sculpture lessons from Libero Andreotti and Bruno Innocenti and drawing lessons from Gianni Vagnetti.

In 1936, inside the stables of Villa Fabbricotti, Fantoni started his Fantoni Ceramics Factory. By the start of World War II Fantoni’s melding of ancient Italian pottery techniques with decidedly Modernist elements had won him artistic and commercial success both in Italy and abroad.

Between the end of the 1940s and the end of the 1950s, the company reached a staff of more than fifty collaborators, including turners and decorators. Among his employees were many students who would become excellent artisans and famous artists in their own right.

He experimented with various materials and formal ideas, drawing from varied influences – Primitivism, Novecento style, Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. Fantoni gave special emphasis to ancient Etruscan ceramic techniques, glazes and colors, heightening the timeless appeal of his pieces.

In 1970 Fantoni founded the International School of Ceramic Art, dedicated to teaching ceramic arts and experimentation, where he continued to work and teach until his death.

Maintaining great versatility throughout his career, Fantoni completed projects for public and private buildings, churches, schools, theaters, cinemas, and ships.

Marcello Fantoni died in Florence in 2011 at the age of 95.

Address

237 E Palace Avenue
Santa Fe, NM
87501

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 4pm
Tuesday 9:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 5pm
Thursday 9:30am - 4pm
Friday 9:30am - 4pm
Saturday 9:30am - 4pm

Telephone

+15059899889

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Peyton Wright Gallery posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Museum

Send a message to Peyton Wright Gallery:

Shortcuts

Share

Category