Hexad of Masterpieces Celebrating Science Hangs in UNM’s PAÍS Building

Striking WPA project ‘meant to be publicly viewed,’ says director

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Hexad of Masterpieces Celebrating Science Hangs in UNM’s PAÍS Building

Striking WPA project ‘meant to be publicly viewed,’ says director

By Lindsay Wood

Arif Khan, director of the UNM Art Museum, stands near three of the paintings that make up The Cycles of Science by painter Raymond Jonson. Photo credit: Lindsay Wood.

Six dazzling paintings, rainbow-colored tributes to science that have been hidden in storage for decades, are now on display in the Physics, Astronomy and Interdisciplinary Science (PAÍS) building on UNM campus. They are so brilliant and warm that standing close seems to risk singeing one’s eyebrows. Born from the dark era of the Great Depression, their buoyant colors and forms seem defiant in the face of tribulation. And, until now, the public has rarely had a chance to see them all together in the 90 years since their creation.