[ad_1]
A longtime Santa Fe artist and sculptor who created some of the city’s most renowned – and controversial – works has passed away.
Donna Quasthoff, known for both large sculptural works and whimsical artwork, died in a Santa Fe hospital of natural causes on September 1. She was 97 years old.
Among other creations, Quasthoff made the statue of the Spanish conquistador Don Diego de Vargas which became a symbol in a community conflict over precise representations of the history of the region. In the summer of 2020, city employees withdrew this law from Cathedral Park, sparking even more controversy.
But not far from where de Vargas once stood, a 14-foot bronze sculpture she made that depicts Spanish soldiers, priests, civilians, farm animals, crops and tools is still standing. upright. Dozens of people, locals and tourists, walk past this room every day, some stopping to pet the donkey or the cow in the monument.
Quasthoff also created the bronze plaque pieces on the huge doors of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in downtown Santa Fe.
Although she was raised in the Catholic religion and accepted commissions from the Catholic Church, she did not attend mass or attend church regularly, friends said. and family members.
But Quasthoff credited her Catholic education, including her time as a student at Chicago’s former Alvernia Catholic High School, for instilling a strong work ethic in her.
“Going to Catholic schools gave him a discipline of work,” Hope Curtis, a partner of Quasthoff for more than 60 years, said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “If she set out to do something, she would do it. And she always helped to be Catholic.”
She said Quasthoff, whom she met in the late 1950s in Santa Fe, had been drawing and creating art since she was a child.
“She said she was pretty shy as a kid,” Curtis said. “And that’s how she started drawing pictures – just being alone and not wanting to join with other people. I couldn’t believe she was shy because she was quite sociable. “
Quasthoff was born August 14, 1924 in Chicago. After graduating from high school, Quasthoff attended the School of the Art Institute in Chicago before moving to Paris to study with the famous Franco-Belarusian sculptor Ossip Zadkine.
After working as an architect in New York City, she moved to Santa Fe in 1954, almost on a whim, because, as she later said, she had the wisdom to choose to come to the city when she ‘she was still young.
Her cousin, Michael Elder, said Quasthoff made the decision “to get away from big cities. She loved the sky and the terrain. A friend of hers convinced her to come to Santa Fe.”
Quasthoff and Curtis, a photographer, met at Claude’s Bar on Canyon Road in the late 1950s, when Quasthoff was working “behind the bar”. A few years later, the couple built a house next to the Old Santa Fe Trail where they both had studios. Quasthoff did much of her artistic work there, although she moved to larger spaces to create larger rooms, including the Colonial Monument.
While renting space from El Museo Cultural to create the Cathedral Park Settlers Monument, Quasthoff fell down a staircase, injuring his femur. It was 2003 when Quasthoff was 79 still energetic.
She completed the 14-foot monument with the help of an assistant and a pair of crutches, Curtis said.
“I wanted this to show the sincere dedication of the people,” Quasthoff said. The New Mexican at the time. “I was raised a Catholic, but never saw the kind of devotion I found here.”
Quasthoff also created the bronze Fray Angélico Chávez outside the history library bearing his name on Lincoln Avenue.
In 2006, Quasthoff was honored as a Living Treasure of Santa Fe for his work as an architect, sculptor and curator. She also received one of the Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts in 1990 for her sculptural work.
Quasthoff – once described by an artistic writer as “Joan of Arc in blue jeans” – displayed a bright smile, which accompanied her quick wit, Curtis and Elder said. A humble woman who loved her local sense of fame, Quasthoff loved to tell a story of returning to the bronze doors of the downtown cathedral, which she created, to someday touch up.
Two women, who clearly did not know Quasthoff or his heritage, approached to admire the doors. One woman said to the other, “I wonder who did that?
“I did,” replied Quasthoff, who in his messy work clothes looked like a janitor.
One of the women gently patted Quasthoff’s shoulder and said, condescendingly, “Of course, my dear.”
Friends and family held a memorial for Quasthoff earlier this month.
[ad_2]
Source link