David Bell, poet & curator
Some of the eccentric and earnest seeking of the early Santa Fe artists persists in the work of Monika Steinhoff. It's good to see this proof that not all the art of the town is slick and regional. By the same token, "Journey of the Fool," at Edith Lambert Gallery, may be puzzling to those who expect that, in this region, the quest for wisdom must entail American Indian accouterments and settings.
Steinhoff's paintings don't look regional. Or, if they do, they're set in another region, perhaps the Europe of fairy tales. The sky is too intimate, the landscape too gentle, to be New Mexico.
The scenes they depict, for all the fantasy, aren't fairy stories of the "happily ever after" sort. They're more like the tough tales that are now out of fashion, the ones that scare kids into minding their elders. Allegories with a hint of dream origin about them, Steinhoff's tales deal with basics such as wisdom, envy, time, death and birth... Journal North, 1991
Steinhoff's paintings don't look regional. Or, if they do, they're set in another region, perhaps the Europe of fairy tales. The sky is too intimate, the landscape too gentle, to be New Mexico.
The scenes they depict, for all the fantasy, aren't fairy stories of the "happily ever after" sort. They're more like the tough tales that are now out of fashion, the ones that scare kids into minding their elders. Allegories with a hint of dream origin about them, Steinhoff's tales deal with basics such as wisdom, envy, time, death and birth... Journal North, 1991