Monument to Nature
Bruce Lowney
Created : 1974
Donated : 1997
Medium : Lithograph
Dimensions: 34 inx42 in
Located: 2nd Floor Southwest Hallway
Bruce Lowney grew up in Watsonville, California. As a child he hiked through the nearby orchards and fields drawing nature and the workers picking and planting. It was at an early age that he learned “the directness of nature, living in it and developing resourcefulness.” He earned a Bachelors of Art degree in 1959 from North Texas State University and a Masters degree from San Francisco State University in 1960. He received an Artist-in-Residence grant to the Roswell Museum and Art Center in 1970. Later, Lowney received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He taught at the University of New Mexico and worked with Garo Antreasian. With a Ford Foundation grant, he studied at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles. Lowney eventually bought land in west central New Mexico where he set up his lithography studio.
Lowney describes his images as either “single allegorical images with a symbolic meaning or far-horizon landscapes in which I try to speak of the sublime quality of space. Both are based on my respect for the paradoxes of life and the conflicting and converging of inner and outer worlds of the human experience.”
According to the artist, his works illustrate specific ideas: “My basic concern is with ideas and images that arise in the periphery of my mind, dreamed-at associations of meaning and reality. What I enjoy most is to make visual a non-visual idea such as ‘peace,’ ‘hope,’ or ‘destiny.’ Generally these ideas are set in a landscape, or the aspect of the landscape is meant to imply the idea. Blue skies as a symbol of space, time and calm are often the settings for these ideas.”
It continues to be the goal of the Capitol Art Foundation to build a permanent collection of contemporary master artworks that reflects New Mexico’s rich and diverse cultural and artistic traditions.
