Frank McCulloch: "I Paint Because I Must"

Known by many as the “grandaddy of New Mexico painters,” musician, artist, and teacher Frank McCulloch was an avid traveler who knew every corner of the state—from Abiquiu to Blue Mountain, Albuquerque to Roswell. What McCulloch saw on these trips resulted in a prolific body of work that ranged from meticulous landscapes to dynamic meditations on color, light, and atmosphere. In his painting Starvation Peak, for example, he depicted the unique yet familiar qualities of a snow-covered butte flecked with sagebrush beneath the desert sky. While in a work like El Crepúsculo, he deftly captured the fleeting qualities of twilight in acrylic, a medium that doesn’t easily lend itself to such nuance or luminosity. Still other works are disarmingly minimalist, demonstrating the artist’s incredible mastery across mediums and interest in experimentation. He was a painter’s painter whose life’s work will be cherished for generations.

Born in Gallup in 1930, McCulloch earned his bachelor’s degree (1953) from the University of New Mexico and his master’s degree (1955) from New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, both in biology. Afterward, he obtained his MFA in studio art at Instituto Allende in Guanajuato, Mexico, before returning home to New Mexico to pursue his lifelong passion for painting. McCulloch was a dedicated teacher in the Albuquerque Public Schools and an accomplished singer and guitarist who mentored many of the state’s most talented musicians. A recipient of the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravo Award, and a UNM Distinguished Alumnus, he was the subject of a retrospective at the Albuquerque Museum in 2008. Today the Museum is proud to hold many of McCulloch’s works in its permanent collection, as well as dozens of works by others that the artist and musician donated to the museum to honor his lifelong friends.