Bill Bomar Cross Collection

November 24th – January 16th 2011

Selections from the Bill Bomar Cross Collection

The Bill Bomar Cross Collection is an exhibition of approximately 100 of the 280 total pieces in the collection. The crosses come from across the globe, with special emphasis on Northern New Mexico. Revealing the infinite creativity of expression by artists-both named and anonymous-the crosses range in size from minuscule to impressive dimensions and are made from such varied materials as wood, stone, iron, straw, thread, cloth, silver, brass, ivory, crystal, clay, turquoise, coral and lapis lazuli. Even paintings that incorporate crosses as subject matter are part of this collection.

 

Bomar Cross display (detail) © 2010

These crosses were collected over a period of five decades by the late Bill Bomar (1919-1991); an artist reared in Fort Worth whose family had strong ties to Albany. He lived for many years in New York and, in the 1970s, moved to the northern New Mexican artistic community of Ranchos de Taos where he spent the remainder of his life. A founding trustee and major benefactor of The Old Jail Art Center (OJAC), Bomar bequeathed his Cross Collection to the OJAC at his death in 1991.

 

The crosses in the exhibition are universal, representing different countries, religions and forms: the Latin Cross, the Greek Cross, the St. Andrew Cross or Saltire and such non-Christian forms (preceding Christianity in both East and West) as the primitive cruciform sign of the ancient Egyptian Tau cross shaped like the letter "T."

Various works from the Bill Bomar Cross Collection are installed in the Howsley Entrance Gallery and the Stasney Center for Education and will be on view throughout the holiday season, until January 16, 2011.