Delmas Howe's Lithographs and Sketches at RioBravoFineArt

Howe moved to New York in the early nineteen-fifties to study music but soon realized that his calling was the painted canvas. His friend and the art historian Edward Lucie-Smith encouraged Howe to paint what he knew. What Howe knew was the cowboy culture of Southern New Mexico. He was raised in Hot Springs, now Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. As Howe was learning to paint, he fell in love with the style of the École des Beaux Arts. He also realized that the style of the École gave him a format to explore the male form at a time of very repressive attitudes about the LGBTQ+ community and to still be considered a serious artist.

The series that established Howe’s reputation as an artist is Rodeo Pantheon. Paintings of the École primarily promoted paintings with a mythic theme. The American cowboy is of course a mythic figure and the American Southwest, of which Southern New Mexico is a defining part, is the myth machine for this nation. The major paintings of Rodeo Pantheon brilliantly combine the stylistic myth elements of École paintings with much that is mythic about the American West. And much that is mythic about the American West shapes our perceptions of ourselves as a nation.

Howe’s lithographs very much reflect his mastery of combining the classic myth stories with the mythic aspects of the cowboy and the American West. In addition to Rodeo Pantheon and his set of lithographs, Howe has other significant series. These include Stations: A Gay Passion, a homoerotic interpretation of the Stations of the Cross, Guys and Canyons, Gesture and Texture, and Fresh Air. 

Images of his work appear in publications discussing art history in general and important art of the LGBTQ+ community. He has work in the permanent collections of the Albuquerque Museum, the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, and Leslie/Lohman in New York. In 2024, the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe added Howe’s Ascension to their permanent collection. Ascension, a large format (seventy inches by fifty inches) painting is a superb intertwining of École stylistic myth elements and the great myths of the American West.

Howe is approaching his ninetieth birthday this year, and RioBravoFineArt, the exclusive representative for Howe’s art, is pleased to present this complete showing of his lithographs and previously unexhibited sketches. RioBravoFineArt, with a display space of approximately six thousand square feet, represents over twenty contemporary artists; it also represents legacy collections of H. Joe Waldrum, the founder of the gallery, Joel Smith and William Bertrum Sharp. RioBravoFineArt, located in the Historic Hot Springs District of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, is part of a vibrant arts community that includes many galleries and artist studios.

The Howe show opening is on Second Saturday Art Hop, a monthly event in Truth or Consequences when the galleries in Truth or Consequences extend their evening hours and the town sponsors special events. The show runs through August 31.