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Mabel Dodge Lujan is the first on the list!
Alice Webb‘s monotype of the iconic San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church in Taos, New Mexico gives us a sense of the surrounding landscape.
More.
Tonight at the gallery: Artifacts and ghosts.
Dorothy Brett (1883-1977) spent years making genre paintings of the Taos Poblanos. Later on, Brett switched to more mystical subject matter that was inspired by Native American spirituality. Her paintings Cat Shaman and Moon Ray reflect her mature philosophies that link humanity and nature.
Ila McAfee (1897-1995), an early Taos transplant, drew inspiration from Pueblo traditions in her work. McAfee often painted wild horses in profile, echoing the stark monochrome of pottery designs. In The Golden Triad, three beasts hover before a textured golden-brown field that captures the hues of high desert clay.
As one of the most vibrant periods in New Mexico history returns to the spotlight, we're declaring a SPRING OF MODERNISM! Learn more on our blog.
Young Balinese Woman, Nicolai Fechin
Fechin was a Russian-American artist who moved to Taos, New Mexico in 1927. He was also a master carpenter and woodcarver, and during his 6 years in Taos he renovated a home that is now the Taos Art Museum.
Our fine furniture maker Roch Hart draws inspiration from Fechin's masterful Spanish colonial style furniture. Learn more.
How is Gertrude Stein connected to New Mexico? Through Mabel Dodge Luhan, of course.
Image: Pioneering Taos modernist Beatrice Mandelman in her studio, 1950.
When John Sloan invited Beatrice Mandelman and Louis Ribak to visit Santa Fe in 1944, the two artists were on the rise among New York City’s avant-garde. They had ties to Hans Hoffman and Fernand Leger, and were often mentioned in the same breath as Jackson Pollock. Sloan, who had been summering in New Mexico for years, had a reputation for spiriting away his favorite artists to the Desert Southwest. During their trip the recently married duo took a train to Taos and decided to stay.
The move marked a radical change in Mandelman and Ribak’s artwork. “We had to start all over again,” Mandelman said. “We spent the first couple years painting landscapes.” They were known for their figurative paintings in New York, but in this radically different environment their focus shifted to pure abstraction. They were trailblazers for a new wave of artists called the Taos Moderns, a movement that enlivened the Taos art colony but enraged an older vanguard of academic painters with ties to the Taos Society of Artists of the 1910’s and 20’s. To this tight clique of romanticists, the newcomers stuck out like colorful cacti—particularly Mandelman.
Exquisite little monotypes by Taos printmaker Barbara Brock.
Alice Webb has lived for close to 40 years in New Mexico. She moved to Taos in 1973 at age 20 and now resides in Albuquerque.
"It was by studying the Taos founders and painting in the very spots they frequented that I truly learned to paint."
Learn more about the artist and her colorful landscapes.
