TAOS, NM.- The Harwood Museum of Art presents Retablo – Behind the Altar, A Collection of Paul Lebaron Thiebaud, on view through December 30, 2006. The Harwood Museum of Art of the University of New Mexico presents the exhibition Retablo: Behind the Altar, A Collection of Paul LeBaron Thiebaud organized by LeBaron’s Fine Art, Sacramento, California. The exhibition on view through December 30, 2006 features a collection of over 100 Mexican tin retablos as well as a handful of relicarios (reliquaries), ex voto paintings and religious sculptures (bultos). Retablos, better known as laminas in Mexico, are small oil paintings on tin, zinc, wood or copper that are used in home altars to venerate Catholic saints or the Holy Family. This genre of folk art, deeply rooted in Spanish history, flourished in Mexico starting in the 17th century and becoming particularly popular in the last quarter of the 19th century with the introduction of inexpensive mediums such as tin. Small retablo factories of trained and untrained artists were established to create these works; some subjects were more popular than others. A typical retablero may have reproduced the same image hundreds, if not thousands, of times in his career. The Thiebaud collection also contains a small group of reliquaries (relicarios) for holy objects, bultos or devotional statues, and ex-votos—paintings on tin or canvas which offer thanks to a patron saint for a blessing received. A Catalogue featuring all works from the exhibition is available in Museum Shop.