A longtime Santa Fe artist and sculptor who created some of the city’s most famous – and controversial – works has died.
Known for both her large-scale sculptural and quirky artwork, Donna Quasthoff died of natural causes in a Santa Fe hospital on September 1. She was 97 years old.
Quasthoff created, among other things, the statue of the Spanish conquistador Don Diego de Vargas, which became a symbol in a community conflict over precise representations of the history of the region. In the summer of 2020, city workers removed this statute from Cathedral Park, creating even more controversy.
But not far from where de Vargas once stood, there is still a 4 meter high bronze sculpture that she made and that depicts Spanish soldiers, priests, civilians, farm animals, crops and tools. Dozens of people, both locals and tourists, pass this piece every day, with some stopping to pet the donkey or cow figures in the memorial.
Quasthoff also created the bronze plaques on the huge doors of the Cathedral of Saint Francis of Assisi in downtown Santa Fe.
Although she was raised a Catholic and accepted assignments from the Catholic Church, she did not attend mass or church regularly, friends and family members said.
But Quasthoff attributed a strong work ethic to her Catholic upbringing, including her time as a student at the now-defunct Alvernia Catholic High School in Chicago.
“Going to Catholic schools gave her a discipline to work,” said Hope Curtis, Quasthoff’s partner for more than 60 years, in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “If she wanted to do something, she would do it. And that has always contributed to being Catholic. “
Quasthoff, whom she met in Santa Fe in the late 1950s, had been drawing and creating art since childhood.
“She said she was pretty shy as a kid,” said Curtis. “And that’s how she got into drawing – just being alone and not wanting to join forces with others. I couldn’t believe she was shy because she was pretty sociable. “
Quasthoff was born in Chicago on August 14, 1924. After graduating from high school, Quasthoff attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to Paris to study with the well-known Franco-Belarusian sculptor Ossip Zadkine.
After working as an architect in New York City, she moved to Santa Fe in 1954, almost on a whim because, as she later said, she was smart enough to visit the city when she was young.
Her cousin Michael Elder said Quasthoff took this step “to get away from the big cities. She loved the sky and the terrain. One of her friends persuaded her to come to Santa Fe. “
Quasthoff and Curtis, a photographer, met at the end of the 1950s in the long-gone Claude’s Bar on Canyon Road when Quasthoff was working “behind the bar”. A few years later, the couple built a house on Old Santa Fe Trail that both had studios on. Quasthoff did much of her artistic work there, although she moved to larger rooms to create larger works, including the settler memorial.
Quasthoff fell down a flight of stairs and injured his thigh. It was 2003 when Quasthoff was still an energetic 79 years old.
Curtis said she completed the 14-foot memorial with the help of an assistant and two crutches.
“I wanted it to show the sincere devotion of the people,” Quasthoff told The New Mexican at the time. “I was raised Catholic, but I’ve never seen the kind of devotion I’ve found here.”
Quasthoff also created the bronze Fray Angélico Chávez outside the history library that bears his name on Lincoln Avenue.
In 2006 Quasthoff was honored as a Santa Fe Living Treasure for her work as an architect, sculptor and preservationist. She also received one of the Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts in 1990 for her sculptural work.
Quasthoff – once described by an art writer as “Joan of Arc in Blue Jeans” – showed a bright smile that accompanied her quick wit, Curtis and Elder said. Quasthoff, a humble woman who enjoyed her local notoriety, loved to tell the story of how one day she returned to renovate the bronze doors of the downtown cathedral she had created.
A couple of women, obviously unfamiliar with Quasthoff and her legacy, approached to admire the doors. One woman said to the other: “I wonder who did this?”
“I have,” replied Quasthoff, who looked like a janitor in her messy work clothes.
One of the women patted Quasthoff gently on the shoulder and said in a patronizing tone: “Of course you did, dear.”
Friends and family members held a memorial for Quasthoff earlier this month.
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