Zara Kriegstein: A Thousand Points of Light

As one of Northern New Mexico’s most significant muralists and painter-historians to emerge during the late twentieth century, Zara Kriegstein (1952–2009) worked across painting, print, and large-scale public murals to create powerful explorations of personal and collective histories. Drawing from the New Mexico Museum of Art’s collection of Kriegstein’s prints, paintings, and etchings, Zara Kriegstein: A Thousand Points of Light reveals an artist deeply engaged with the social, political, and spiritual questions of her time.

Arriving in New Mexico in the late 1970s, Kriegstein found a landscape and cultural history that resonated deeply with her longstanding interest in the roots of human civilization, morality, and social responsibility. Her distinctive visual language, marked by social critique and expressive imagery, was shaped by her childhood experiences coming of age in West Berlin during the Cold War. These formative influences established her vital artistic voice expressed through landmark works of public art and more intimate, reflective works of the psyche, that continue to shape conversations about history, ethics, and cultural identity in New Mexico and beyond.