A Homecoming in Color: Marsden Hartley Returns to New Mexico in Major Art Exhibition

Santa Fe welcomes a vivid tribute to one of America’s pioneering modernists, bridging landscapes, cultures, and a life of artistic adventure

SANTA FE, N.M. — The New Mexico Museum of Art is turning the page on history with Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts, a striking new exhibition that traces the storied journey of one of America’s most influential modernist painters. Organized by the Vilcek Foundation in collaboration with the Bates College Museum of Art, this landmark exhibition is a rich celebration of Hartley's life, legacy, and the landscapes—both physical and emotional—that shaped his art.

Hartley (1877–1943), born in New England and inspired by the world, was a restless wanderer and a seeker of beauty. His travels across Europe and North America fueled a career that helped define the American Modernist movement, and nowhere did he feel more spiritually connected than the American Southwest.

“Hartley's significance as an artist can be attributed to his lifelong commitment to learn from cultures and landscapes that differed from those immediately available to him,” said Rick Kinsel, President of the Vilcek Foundation.

A Return to the Southwest

Though Hartley spent only a brief period living in New Mexico during the late 1910s, the region left a lasting impression. His fascination with Pueblo ceremonies, the desert light, and the spiritual resonance of the Southwest can be seen in his New Mexico Recollections series—six of which are included in the exhibition, painted later in Berlin as poetic memories of the land he longed to revisit.

“New Mexico resonated deeply with Hartley,” noted curator Emily Schuchardt Navratil. “He left vowing to return. This exhibition is a kind of homecoming—for the art and for the artist’s spirit.”

Artifacts of a Life in Motion

Spanning 36 years of Hartley’s prolific career, the exhibition features 40 paintings and drawings, alongside personal artifacts and rare memorabilia from his travels. Visitors will also encounter the iconic painting Schiff (1915)—created during Hartley's stay in Germany—which is being shown in the U.S. for only the second time.

The exhibition’s heart lies in the Jan T. and Marica Vilcek Collection, the result of more than 20 years of dedicated collecting by the Vilcek Foundation’s cofounders, in collaboration with Kinsel. The exhibit is further enriched by Hartley’s personal effects from the Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection at Bates College Museum of Art in his hometown of Lewiston, Maine.

True to Hartley’s interdisciplinary nature as a painter and poet, Adventurer in the Arts isn’t just an art exhibit—it’s a creative playground. Visitors can type poems on vintage typewriters, read Hartley’s favorite books in a cozy nook, color in passport-style zines, or follow a family-friendly scavenger hunt inspired by Hartley’s global travels.

A Celebration of Cultural Exchange

The exhibition also reflects the Vilcek Foundation’s broader mission: to celebrate the power of cultural exchange and the contributions of immigrants to American life.

“This exhibition allows us to showcase both Hartley as a revolutionary modernist and the ways individuals and societies are enriched through cultural exchange,” Kinsel said.

Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts is now open at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe and will run until July 25, 2025.

For art lovers, history buffs, and curious wanderers alike, this is more than an exhibit—it’s a journey into the soul of an artist who made the world his canvas.