Taos Art Museum opened in 1994. In 2002, it moved to the beautiful and historic home of Nicolai Fechin. The museum's permanent collection features stunning paintings by the Taos Society of Artists.
HISTORY OF THE TAOS SOCIETY OF ARTISTS
The artist Joseph H. Sharp first visited Taos while on a sketching trip in 1883, and was captivated with its enchanting atmosphere. He is often referred to as the artist who "started it all." Later, while studying in Paris, he shared his enthusiasm with two artist friends, Bert G. Phillips and Ernest L. Blumenschein. As a result of a broken wagon wheel on September 3, 1898, the two artists stayed in the Taos area instead of completing their scheduled trip to Mexico. Back in Paris, Blumenschein met E.I. Couse and told him of a mystical mountainous region. Intrigued, Couse was also inspired to explore Taos. Oscar E. Berninghaus joined the Taos artists, and with the addition of Herbert Dunton, a painter of cowboys and ranch life, the "Founding" group numbered six. On July 1, 1915, the Taos Society of Artists held its first meeting. The proposed purpose of the association was to promote the showing and sale of their work.
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The group then met Walter Ufer and Victor Higgins and voted them in as Active Members in July of 1917. Julius Rolshoven became an Associate Member in 1917 and then an active member in 1918. E. Martin Hennings became an Active Member in 1924. The only woman of the group, Catherine C. Critcher, became an Active Member also in 1924. And Kenneth Adams, the last and youngest of the group, became a member in 1926, only one year before the group disbanded.
Bert Geer Phillips was the first of the group to take up year-round residency in Taos in 1898. He opened doors by establishing close relationships between the Native Americans and artists who joined him in succeeding years. He is represented by a vividly colored portrait, Warbonnet Shadows. |
Bert Geer Phillips, "Warbonnet Shadows," Oil on canvas, 22" x 18"
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Joseph Henry Sharp, "Montana Blackfoot Indian," Watercolor on paper.
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Joseph Henry Sharp, the 'ethnographer' of the Taos artists, stated: "If I don't paint them [the Native American], no one ever will." He painted more than 10,000 canvases in this effort, many of which are three-quarter portraits such as Montana Blackfoot Indian. |
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Eanger Irving Couse was nearly as prolific as Sharp. In 1920 he stated, "My interest has always been the domestic side of the Indian rather than the usual conception of the Indian always on the warpath." He was the first to achieve a national reputation through his success in the National Academy of Design's juried exhibitions. He also created twenty-three images, similar to Fireside Indian, that were featured on the Santa Fe Railway's annual calendars. He popularized a kneeling Native American in interior settings, illuminated by man-made fire. These paintings are beautiful examples of how three artists with strong academic backgrounds produced striking and sometimes romanticized canvases of Native Americans. |
E.I. Couse, "Fireside Indian," Oil on canvas
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Ernest Blumenschein, "Taos Landscape," Oil on canvas
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After Ernest Blumenschein's initial visit to Taos in 1898, he and his wife traveled to Europe and returned to Taos seasonally until the late 1910s. The Museum's collection includes works highlighting his early European training and his later work created in Taos, notably Taos Landscape. In the 1920s, critics referred to Blumenschein as a decorative painter, a reference to his bold form of modernism. In addition to painting, he was also deeply involved as a violinist. In his Native American ceremony and landscape paintings, the viewer is made conscious of his interest in strong colors, bold forms, and poetic rhythms. |
Oscar E. Berninghaus, "Watching the Ballgame"
With a commercial illustration background, the St. Louis-born Oscar E. Berninghaus, an acute observer of life in and around Taos, painted Watching the Ballgame. Berninghaus claimed that he was "infected with the Taos germ" and was "fascinated by the people, the Indians, and Mexicans, the adobe architecture, the sagebrush, the mountains, they all inspired me as a subject matter." Baseball was a favorite community pastime for Native Americans, Hispanics, and Caucasians alike. When fellow artist Blumenschein wasn't painting, trout fishing, or playing the violin, he played on the Taos team until he was fifty years old.
With a commercial illustration background, the St. Louis-born Oscar E. Berninghaus, an acute observer of life in and around Taos, painted Watching the Ballgame. Berninghaus claimed that he was "infected with the Taos germ" and was "fascinated by the people, the Indians, and Mexicans, the adobe architecture, the sagebrush, the mountains, they all inspired me as a subject matter." Baseball was a favorite community pastime for Native Americans, Hispanics, and Caucasians alike. When fellow artist Blumenschein wasn't painting, trout fishing, or playing the violin, he played on the Taos team until he was fifty years old.
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Two paintings by another highly respected illustrator, William Herbert "Buck" Dunton, the "cowboy" painter of Taos, are among the collection highlights. Dunton's Portrait of John Reyna depicts the seated Native American in a three-quarter view, dressed in ceremonial costume. He is highlighted by a handsome bonnet and all the trappings of a proud chieftain. The oil sketch for McMullin, Guide is one of a half-dozen studies that Dunton did for his monumental canvas of the hunter and his hounds. Few artists put such effort into a sketch on canvas. It is remarkable for its bold, spontaneous brushwork, freshness, and authenticity. |
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The German-born Walter Ufer excelled when painting small canvases. Despite their size, he did not consider Taos Indian (In a Peafield) or Kit Carson House to be preliminaries for larger compositions. Ufer wrote, "I do not make any small sketches of my models first but put my full vitality and enthusiasm into the one and original painting." In fact, Taos Indian (In a Peafield), depicting his favorite model and friend, Jim Mirabal, is meticulous in its detail. Rather than romanticizing him, Ufer painted Jim as he found him.  Victor Higgins, "Indian Nude," Oil on canvas
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Walter Ufer, "Taos Indian (In a Peafield)," Oil on canvas
In the 1930s, Taos was devastated by the Great Depression. It wasn't long before the artists discovered their patrons were seldom spending on art if they had liquid assets. One of the most impoverished artists in Taos was Indiana-born Victor Higgins. Yet, in 1932, despite his economic woes, Higgins painted two of his most important canvases: Winter Funeral and Indian Nude. While the New York press applauded Winter Funeral, Indian Nude earned Chicago Herald Examiner critic Inez Cunningham's praises. When Higgins exhibited the painting in the Chester H. Johnson Galleries in Chicago and Grand Central Galleries in New York, she predicted "a Phoenix Higgins arising out of the ashes of his own past to, one dares not yet say, what heights of intellectual and emotional fire. He is one of those fortunate few who flower in maturity." |
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Like Ufer and Higgins, Chicagoan E. Martin Hennings' first trip to Taos in 1917 was sponsored by the former Chicago Mayor Carter H. Harrison II and his syndicate. The Cottonwoods by Hennings pictures seasonal changes in foliation that challenged Hennings with a wealth of pictorial opportunities. He chose fall months when the leafless cottonwoods created a network of fan-shaped branches. Bathed in the brilliant New Mexico sunshine, the stems turn a silvery tan and create beautiful shapes against piercing blue skies. The Taos Art Museum completes its collection of work by Taos Society of Artists members with paintings by Julius Rolshoven, Catharine Carter Critcher, and Kenneth Adams. Of the Taos Society of Artists' associate members, the collection includes paintings, drawings, and prints by Robert Henri, Randall Davey, Albert Groll, B.J. O. Nordfeldt, Gustave Baumann, and Birger Sandzen. |
 E. Martin Hennings, "The Cottonwoods," Oil on canvas
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Andrew Dasburg, "Tulips," Oil on canvas
Following the Taos Society Artists
During the 1920s and 1930s, there was an influx of artists who showed tendencies toward modernism. Andrew Dasburg arrived in Taos in 1918 and was a key proponent of modernism. Influenced by the works of Paul Cezanne, he brought the cubist aesthetic to Taos. Kenneth Adams, Ward Lockwood, Barbara Latham, and Howard Cook were some of the artists influenced by Dasburg. They came to Taos and spent their careers there. Lockwood, Latham, and Cook eventually settled in Dasburg's neighborhood on the north Talpa ridge. Artists enjoyed painting the Picuris Mountains to the south, patterns created by strip farming, and adobe houses seemingly growing out of the terra firma.
Following the arrival of this initial group of artists, the Taos area has grown to become a renowned international art market and artists' community. It is estimated there are more artists, per capita, in the Taos area than in any other city in the world, including Paris, France.
During the 1920s and 1930s, there was an influx of artists who showed tendencies toward modernism. Andrew Dasburg arrived in Taos in 1918 and was a key proponent of modernism. Influenced by the works of Paul Cezanne, he brought the cubist aesthetic to Taos. Kenneth Adams, Ward Lockwood, Barbara Latham, and Howard Cook were some of the artists influenced by Dasburg. They came to Taos and spent their careers there. Lockwood, Latham, and Cook eventually settled in Dasburg's neighborhood on the north Talpa ridge. Artists enjoyed painting the Picuris Mountains to the south, patterns created by strip farming, and adobe houses seemingly growing out of the terra firma.
Following the arrival of this initial group of artists, the Taos area has grown to become a renowned international art market and artists' community. It is estimated there are more artists, per capita, in the Taos area than in any other city in the world, including Paris, France.