Margarete Bagshaw

Margarete Bagshaw (November 11, 1964 – March 19, 2015) was an American painter and potter. She was the daughter of artist Helen Hardin and grand daughter of artist Pablita Velarde. Together, they formed one of the few three generational female painting dynasties known. Their work is on permanent exhibit at the Golden Dawn Gallery in Santa Fe.

Bagshaw grew up in New Mexico and lived most of her life between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. She did not start to create her own artwork until 1990 at the age of 26.

In 2006, after settling her grandmother's estate, she moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Bagshaw lived in the Virgin Islands for almost three years. While in the Virgin Islands, she was a founding partner and co-builder of ISW Studios  — a world-class recording and multi-media studio in St. Thomas, USVI. Bagshaw was responsible for all design elements of the studio project during construction, and was in charge of all administrative functions of all of the ISW divisions. From 2006 to 2008, Bagshaw continued to paint two-dimensional works that were shipped back to her gallery in New Mexico.

In 2009, Bagshaw decided to return to clay work – something she had not done since her school days – almost 25 years earlier. These clay pieces are flat tablets and three-dimensional works of clay – abstract, non-symmetrical bowls and vessels. These clay pieces were all incised with the intricate designs that Bagshaw is recognized for, and then after firing, painted with oil paint.

Throughout her 20-year career she was known for her use of color, composition and texture. Bagshaw was featured in many publications including: Southwest Art magazine, Native Peoples magazine, the New Mexico Magazine and recently both the Albuquerque Journal and ABQ Arts. She was one of the featured artists in the 2003 book — NDN Art: Contemporary Native American Art, The New Mexico Artist Series as well as the 1998 book — Pueblo Artists Portraits, by Toba Tucker. In 2011 at the annual conference of the Folk Art Society in Santa Fe Bagshaw spoke about the tension between carrying on Native traditions and her impetus toward more modernist expression.

Bagshaw took part in over a dozen major museum exhibitions, including the Eiteljorge Museum Of American and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Hamden Museum in Virginia, and numerous invitational shows with the Museum of Albuquerque, New Mexico. As the subject of a documentary film project, Bagshaw spoke at the dedication ceremony for the donation of "The White Collection" (featuring a number of Bagshaw's works), at the Lakeview Museum in Illinois in September 2008. In 2010, Bagshaw presented a one-woman show at the Smoki Museum in Prescott, Arizona. In 2011, Bagshaw was invited to be the keynote speaker for Women in History Month at the National Museum of Indian Arts, Smithsonian in Washington DC. In 2012, Bagshaw had a year-long solo show at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, wrote her memoirs "Teaching My Spirit To Fly" as part of a 3 book set that included biographies of her mother - Helen Hardin, and her grandmother - Pablita Velarde, and painted 10 large paintings used as chapter paintings in her memoirs. For 2 years following the release of her memoirs, Bagshaw lectured across the county. In 2013. Bagshaw presented the largest solo museum show of her career at the Ellen Noel Museum in Odessa Texas. This show included 25 of her largest paintings and included a video created specifically for this show. The show title was "The Color of Oil." During the last 5 years of her life, Bagshaw painted 210 oil paintings - the largest was almost 7' tall by 10' long. These 210 paintings are all included in the 5 year retrospective book - "Woman Made of Fire."