FOCUS ON FOLK ART : HISTORY OF COLLECTIONS

ome of the first gifts received by the San Antonio Museum Association were rare wax genre figures from Mexico, ceramics from Puebla, and indigenous textiles. During the 1960s and 1970s important collections of religious folk paintings on tin and copper (retablos) were given by Mr. and Mrs. Richard Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Del Baker, and others. In 1980 the pace of acquisition quickened when the City of San Antonio gave the Museum Association 1000 pieces of Mexican folk art received from the Mexican Government after the Mexico Trade Show of 1976.

The most significant event in the museum's history of collecting Latin American folk art occurred in 1985, when approximately 2500 pieces from the collection of the late Nelson A. Rockefeller were given to the museum by his daughter, Ann Rockefeller Roberts. This extraordinary collection spans almost 50 years of devotion to folk art by Rockefeller and is one of the most important of its kind in the world.

That same year, the Robert K. Winn Collection, numbering over 3500 objects, was donated. The Winn Collection is particularly strong in indigenous textiles selected for their exceptional texture, form, and color. Like those of Rockefeller, Robert Winn's collecting activities in Mexico spanned several decades.

Joe Nicholson, local folk art aficionado and former editor of Trinity University Press, made the year 1985 even more memorable by his generous gift of Mexican folk toys, which forms the core of the recreational section of the folk art collection.

Ted Warmbold is also gratefully remembered for his untiring efforts to promote the folk arts of Latin America. While editor of the San Antonio Light, he founded the Friends of Latin American Art (1981). His private collection of contemporary folk art was one of the finest in the world. A substantial portion of his collection was bequeathed to the museum upon his death in 1989.

The museum continues to collect in the area of Mexican folk art because of its variety and richness and its relevance to the cultural heritage of south Texas. The museum also continues to expand its collections to better represent the diversity of Central American, South American, and Caribbean folk art. Acquisitions made in the 1990s include objects from Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, and Haiti.