Larry Frank, Historian, art collector and author, 80
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By ERIC J. HEDLUND | Taos News
August 9, 2006
Historian, art collector and author Larry Frank died in his sleep
Monday afternoon at his home in Arroyo Hondo. He was 80.
His wife, artist Alyce Frank, described her husband as "fascinating and
never boring. He was very sweet to me."
Over more than four decades, Frank amassed what is generally considered
the best collection of Spanish colonial santos, or saints, in private
hands. He wrote several books on the artistic, cultural history of
Northern New Mexico. He and historian Skip Miller co-authored in 2001
an ambitious and comprehensive three-volume work on the subject, A Land
So Remote.
Born in 1926 in Los Angeles, Frank had degrees in English literature
and philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley. He and
Alyce married in L.A. in 1953, and they produced educational films
before they moved to Taos County in 1962.
They moved into a
150-year-old penitente morada that would become their home for the next
44 years.
Frank also wrote another major book on New Mexico santos, The New
Kingdom of the Saints as well as Historic Pottery of the Pueblo
Indians, Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest and a book of short
stories, Train Stops.
He lectured on santos at Stanford University, the Roswell Museum, The
University of New Mexico and St. John's College in conjunction with an
exhibit of his collection.
He is survived by his wife and three children.
Secretary of Cultural Affairs Stuart Ashman said the collection, housed
in the blood-stained morada, included more than 300 pieces going back
to the late 18th century. It included the work of several artists known
only as the A.J. santero, the Arroyo Hondo santero and the Santo Niño
santero.
He also owned major work by the artist José Rafael Aragon, described
as the Michaelangelo of Northern New Mexico santeros.
Frank "loved showing this stuff," Ashman said. "It was like an event.
When you came there, he was waiting. He walked you through the
collection and told stories. He knew so much about the traditions of
the Hispanic community."
Frank was also a "sharp" collector who bought many Spanish pieces while
they were still priced low.
The only other collections to rival Frank's are in museums such as the
Taylor Museum for Southwestern Studies in Colorado Springs, Colo., the
Museum of Spanish Colonial Art and Museum of International Folk Art,
both in Santa Fe.
Frank talked to a number of museums about donating his collection,
which is valued at around $5 million. At one time, The University of
New Mexico forfeited earnest money when it couldn't raise the purchase
price. While he was working at the Smithsonian Institution, Andrew
Connors, a former senior curator at the National Hispanic Cultural
Center, said he talked Frank about donating a few pieces. But Frank
said he wanted to keep the work together.
Ashman said he tried to acquire the Frank collection for the museums he
has been associated with and discussed the subject most recently with
Frank just a few months ago. "He knew that any day he could call
Sotheby's and auction it off. But he wanted it to stay together and
stay in New Mexico," Ashman said.
Ashman said the acquisition would most likely have been a gift/purchase
in which Frank sold the artwork to the state museum at a price
significantly below its appraised value.
Now it is going to be up to Alyce Frank, to determine the future of the
collection.
Michael O'Shaughessy, Frank's publisher at Red Crane Books, said: "He
had a profound love for these pieces."
O'Shaughessy said Frank fell in love with medieval art as a young
student in Paris but couldn't afford to buy it. The santo tradition,
when he discovered it, "came close," and at the time, prices were
reasonable.
Today, "the value of the collection is immense," O'Shaughessy said.
A private burial is scheduled for Friday at a cemetery near the Frank
home.