The Harwood Museum of Art is located in Taos, New Mexico. Founded in 1923 by the Harwood Foundation, it is the second oldest art museum in New Mexico. Its collections include a wide range of Hispanic works and visual arts from the Taos Society of Artists, Taos Moderns, and contemporary artists. In 1935 the museum was purchased by the University of New Mexico. Since then the property has been expanded to include an auditorium, library and additional exhibition space.
The Harwood Museum of Art in Taos has a permanent collection of over 1,700 works of art and 17,000 photographic images. The collection dates from the 19th century to the present and reflects the multicultural heritages and influences of the Taos artistic community. The categories of works include: Hispanic, Taos Society of Artists, Taos Moderns, Contemporary, and Prints, Drawings and Photographs. [1]
The Harwood Museum has a collection of a broad range of Hispanic works, including paintings, tinware and woodworking reflecting craftsmanship going back to the beginning of Spanish colonization of New Mexico. [2]
Too expensive to have furniture shipped from Mexico City, New Mexicans established carpentry shops in late 18th Century and early 19th Century where carved furniture was made, such as cajas (storage chests), harineros (grain chests), and trasteros (kitchen cupboards). The Valdez workshop in Taos County created works distinguished by incised asterisk markings; Some works were brightly colored in red and blue. [2]
Tin work served as an integral part of Hispanic religious culture during the 19th Century. Tin cans, glass panes and religious prints were fashioned into devotional objects. There were 13 workshops in New Mexico from 1840 to 1915 thirteen workshops in New Mexico. By the turn of the century tinsmiths primarily created items for the home, such as sconces, lanterns and trinket boxes. [2]
Santos, sacred images of Roman Catholicism for homes and churches, were made in New Mexico since the late 1700s. The museum's collection includes works donated by Mabel Dodge Luhan made between 1800-1850 and contemporary works. The Harwood has the largest publicly owned collection of secular works by Patrociño Barela (1900-1964), an acclaimed leader for contemporary santeros. Some of the museum's pieces include carvings show at a premier at Museum of Modern Art in New York. [2]
During the 1920s and 1930s there was Spanish Colonial revival reflected in many forms of art, including furniture, tinware, architecture and colcha embroidery. State and Federal government and private foundations funded programs to hire instructors to teach craftsmanship. The New Deal's Taos Crafts smithing and furniture school resulted in pieces made in wood and tin, such as tin work chandeliers, armarios (cabinets), bancos (benches), mesas (tables) and sillas (chairs) that are used in the gallery or offices of the Harwood. [2]
The Taos Society of Artists, inspired by the Taos Pueblo people and the Taos landscape, was formed in 1915 by European trained artists Joseph Henry Sharp, Bert Geer Phillips, Ernest L. Blumenschein, Oscar E. Berninghaus, E. Irving Couse and W. Herbert Dunton. They wanted an organization like the Barbizon School of artists who painted landscapes in the Barbizon region of France. The Taos Society of Artists coordinated traveling shows of society members' works throughout the United States. Their work was generally of Native Americans, Hispanics and early Anglo-Americans settlers and landscapes. The organization disbanded in 1927. [3]
In the 1940s a group of artists, some able to study under the G.I. bill, came to Taos with influences from European and American modern art. Without knowing the history of the local art colony, artists came from New York City and San Francisco, centers for abstract painting that emerged after World War II. By the 1950s Taos had become one of the major centers for modern art in the country. The artists became known as the "Taos Moderns". Andrew Dasbug came to Taos and was a mentor to many of the new artists. Some of the emerging artists from this period include: Thomas Benrimo, Agnes Martin, Clay Spohn, and Edward Corbett. Other visiting artists include Richard Diebenkorn, Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Clyfford Still, and Morris Graves. [4]
Like earlier artists, they portrayed the colorful New Mexican landscape and cultural influences, such as the "timelessness they perceived in Puebloan culture and the deep connection to the land they noted in the everyday life of both Native Americans and Hispanics influence experimentation and innovation in their own art." Rather than capturing realist images of people and the landscape, they sought to capture the true meaning of their subjects. [4]
The 1960s and 1970s was a transitional period for the Taos art colony. People who had been guiding forces of the art colony died, such as Mabel Dodge Luhan, Andrew Dasburg, Emil Bisttram, and Dorothy Brett. There was also an influx of a new generation of artists when Dennis Hopper came to Taos to complete final rough cut of "Easy Rider". He stayed and bought the Mabel Dodge Luhan property and, like her, encouraged artists, musicians and celebrities to visit him in Taos. [5] Contemporary artists such as Ronald Davis, [6] Dennis Hopper, [7] Kenneth Price, Larry Bell, Ron Cooper, Gus Foster, Lee Mullican, Larry Calcagno and R. C. Gorman came to Taos; Some moved to Taos permanently and others spent part of each year in Taos. [5]
Price's project known as Happy's Curios was shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Harwood Museum has one of the larger pieces, "Death Shrine 1" from that collection on extended loan. Harwood's collection include a retrospective of 18-20 works by Larry Calcagno and R. C. Ellis. Taos is a second home for artists from the east and west coasts, continuing Taos art colony's international reputation. [5]
In 2009 the Harwood Museum held a group exhibition curated by Dennis Hopper called Hopper Curates - Larry Bell, Ron Cooper, Ronald Davis, Kenneth Price & Robert Dean Stockwell . [7] [8]
The Harwood Museum of Art displays works from their permanent collection of prints, drawings and photographs and works on loan. The Museum collection includes works of early artists, such as Howard Cook, Joseph Imhoff, Gene Kloss, Nicolai Fechin, and Walter Ufer. Imhoff first brought a lithography press to Taos. The works of the works of Tom Benrimo, Andrew Dasburg, Earl Stroh, and Louis Leon Ribak represent the Taos Moderns. The collection also has prints and drawings from more recent artists, such as Larry Calcagno, R.C. Ellis, Kenneth Price, Joe Waldrum, Vija Celmins, Wes Mills, and Bill Gersh. [9]
The collection includes more than 17,000 photographic images of Taos art and artists, Hispanic villages and Indian Pueblos. [9]
Burt and Elizabeth Harwood left their home in France in 1916 to move to Taos where they purchased a cluster of small adobe buildings on Ledoux Street. Over the next three years Burt Harwood directed the remodeling of the buildings, in keeping with local construction techniques, and named the complex "El Pueblito". [10]
When the Harwoods realized there was no town library in Taos they opened their extensive private library to the public. Mabel Dodge Luhan supported their efforts through book and financial donations. Often exhibitions of pottery, textiles, wood sculptures and santos were displayed at Harwood; [10] The museum, founded in 1923, is the second oldest art museum in the state. [11]
In 1929 the University of New Mexico opened a Field School of Art at Harwood. The Harwood Foundation was given to the University of New Mexico in 1935 and became a source of programs for the university in Taos County, New Mexico. It was expanded in 1937 as designed by John Gaw Meem to include an auditorium, stage, exhibition space, and a library facility. [10]
In 1997 the Harwood Museum opened another major renovation and expansion, including the Agnes Martin Gallery to house seven paintings donated by the artist to the museum. The gift of the paintings, and the design of the octagonal space to the artist's specifications by Albuquerque architectural firm, Kells & Craig, were negotiated and overseen by museum director Robert M. Ellis, a close friend of Martin's. The Agnes Martin Gallery attracts visitors from all over the world and has been compared by scholars to the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence (Matisse Chapel), Corbusier's Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, and the Rothko Chapel in Houston.[ citation needed ]
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Chacón to act as fortified plaza and trading outpost for the neighboring Native American Taos Pueblo and Hispano communities, including Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, El Prado, and Arroyo Seco. The town was incorporated in 1934. As of the 2010 census, its population was 5,716.
The Taos art colony was an art colony founded in Taos, New Mexico, by artists attracted by the culture of the Taos Pueblo and northern New Mexico. The history of Hispanic craftsmanship in furniture, tin work, and other mediums also played a role in creating a multicultural tradition of art in the area.
Agnes Bernice Martin was an American abstract painter known for her minimalist style and abstract expressionism. Born in Canada, she moved to the United States in 1931, where she pursued higher education and eventually became a U.S. citizen in 1950. Martin's artistic journey began in New York City, where she immersed herself in modern art and developed a deep interest in abstraction. Despite often being labeled a minimalist, she identified more with abstract expressionism. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion on inward-ness and silence".
Walter Ufer was an American artist based in Taos, New Mexico. His most notable work focuses on scenes of Native American life, particularly of the Pueblo Indians.
Mabel Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan was an American patron of the arts, who was particularly associated with the Taos art colony.
Nicolai Fechin was a Russian-American painter known for his portraits and works featuring Native Americans. After graduating with the highest marks from the Imperial Academy of Arts and traveling in Europe under a Prix de Rome, he returned to his native Kazan, where he taught and painted. He exhibited his first work in the United States in 1910 in an international exhibition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After immigrating with his family to New York in 1923 and working there for a few years, Fechin developed tuberculosis and moved West for a drier climate. He and his family settled in Taos, New Mexico, where he became fascinated by Native Americans and the landscape. The adobe house which he renovated in Taos is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is used as the Taos Art Museum. After leaving Taos in 1933, Fechin eventually settled in southern California.
Larry Bell is an American contemporary artist and sculptor. He is best known for his glass boxes and large-scaled illusionistic sculptures. He is a grant recipient from, among others, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, and his artworks are found in the collections of many major cultural institutions. He lives and works in Taos, New Mexico, and maintains a studio in Venice, California.
Andrew Michael Dasburg was an American modernist painter and "one of America's leading early exponents of cubism".
The Mabel Dodge Luhan House, also known as the Big House, is a historic house at 240 Morada Lane in Taos, New Mexico, United States. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991. It is now used as a hotel and conference center.
Arnold Rönnebeck was a German-born American modernist artist and museum administrator. He was a vital member of both the European and American avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century before settling in Denver, Colorado. Rönnebeck was a sculptor and painter, but is best known for his lithographs that featured a range of subjects including New York cityscapes, New Mexico and Colorado landscapes and Native American dances.
Ron Cooper is an American artist who grew up in Ojai, California and started his career in the late 1960s in Los Angeles. By 1973, Cooper had already participated in numerous international solo and group shows with pieces in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum and LACMA, and special exhibitions such as that at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art.
Hon. Dorothy Eugénie Brett was an Anglo-American painter, remembered as much for her social life as for her art. Born into an aristocratic British family, she lived a sheltered early life. During her student years at the Slade School of Art, she associated with Dora Carrington, Barbara Hiles and the Bloomsbury group. Among the people she met was novelist D.H. Lawrence, and it was at his invitation that she moved to Taos, New Mexico in 1924. She remained there for the rest of her life, becoming an American citizen in 1938.
The Millicent Rogers Museum is an art museum in Taos, New Mexico, founded in 1956 by the family of Millicent Rogers. Initially the artworks were from the multi-cultural collections of Millicent Rogers and her mother, Mary B. Rogers, who donated many of the first pieces of Taos Pueblo art. In the 1980s, the museum was the first cultural organization in New Mexico to offer a comprehensive collection of Hispanic art.
The Taos Art Museum is an art museum located in Taos, New Mexico in the Nicolai Fechin House. This was the home of Russian artist Nicolai Fechin, his wife Alexandra, and daughter Eya. The museum's primary aims are to improve awareness of the works and patronage of Taos artists and to nurture local artistic development. Many of the works of the Taos Society of Artists are held by museums outside of New Mexico, leading them to work to "Bring Taos art back to Taos."
Robert M. Ellis was an American artist. His professional career spanned six decades as an artist, educator, and museum director, including eight years as Curator of Education at the Pasadena Art Museum in California, twenty-three years on the art faculty of University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, and ten years as director of UNM's Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico. His work is in numerous museum collections, including the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, and Roswell Museum and Art Center. Apart from his distinguished career as a painter, Ellis left an indelible mark on the art world in both southern California and northern New Mexico.
Rebecca Salsbury James (1891–1968) was a self-taught American painter, born in London, England of American parents who were traveling with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. She settled in New York City, where she married photographer Paul Strand. Following her divorce from Strand, James moved to Taos, New Mexico where she fell in with a group that included Mabel Dodge Luhan, Dorothy Brett, and Frieda Lawrence. In 1937 she married William James, a businessman from Denver, Colorado who was then operating the Kit Carson Trading Company in Taos. She remained in Taos until her death in 1968.
Beatrice Mandelman, known as Bea, was an American abstract artist associated with the group known as the Taos Moderns. She was born in Newark, New Jersey to Anna Lisker Mandelman and Louis Mandelman, Jewish immigrants who imbued their children with their social justice values and love of the arts. After studying art in New York City and being employed by the Works Progress Administration Federal Arts Project (WPA-FAP), Mandelman arrived in Taos, New Mexico, with her artist husband Louis Leon Ribak in 1944 at the age of 32. Mandelman's oeuvre consisted mainly of paintings, prints, and collages. Much of her work was highly abstract, including her representational pieces such as cityscapes, landscapes, and still lifes. Through the 1940s, her paintings feature richly textured surfaces and a subtly modulated, often subdued color palette. New Mexico landscape and culture had a profound influence on Mandelman's style, influencing it towards a brighter palette, more geometric forms, flatter surfaces, and more crisply defined forms. One critic wrote that the "twin poles" of her work were Cubism and Expressionism. Her work is included in many major public collections, including large holdings at the University of New Mexico Art Museum and Harwood Museum of Art.
Robert Ray was an American artist, active in the middle to late twentieth century.
Joe Trinidad Archuleta was a Pueblo-American painter and muralist from the Taos Pueblo. Some of his works are in the permanent collection of institutions including the Museum of New Mexico.
Helene Valeska Billing Wurlitzer (1874–1963) was notable for her philanthropy in the arts in both Ohio and New Mexico. Helene was born in Salt Lake City to German immigrant Gustav Billing (1840-1890) and Henriette Schneider Billing (1849-1939), a Cincinnati physician’s daughter. Helene’s parents were in Utah establishing a mining smelter funded by Ohio investors. She was the first of two children; her sister being born in 1888.
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