American Art Collaborative

Bulto by Luis Tapia, Tribute to Maria Benitez, by Luis Tapia, 1990. Bultos (saints carved in the round) have been a prominent art form in northern New Mexico since the eighteenth century, when geographic isolation prompted the faithful to create devotional figures for personal use. Tapia’s portrait of the legendary flamenco dancer Maria Benitez represents a contemporary manifestation of this historic art form while evoking the graceful movement of the flamenco dance, also an important ritual in Hispanic society.