Individual Artists

Standing left to right: Walter Ufer, W.Herbert Dunton, Victor Higgins, Kenneth Adams. Seated left to right: Joseph H. Sharp, E.Martin Hennings, E. Irving Couse, Oscar E. Berninghaus. Front row, left to right: Bert G. Phillips, Ernest L. Blumenschein

Introductory Article:

When Ernest L. Blumenschein and Bert Phillips, two young artists who were traveling by wagon from Denver to Mexico in 1898, lost a wagon wheel some place north of Taos and were forced to head here for repairs, little did they know they were soon to start a trickle of artists into the Taos valley that would swell for the next forty years. A flood of artists and writers came to Taos for the native people, the landscape, the light, the silence. As D.H. Lawrence said, "Taos is a state of mind." it was. And is.
These two men were the first of the famous Seven who came to Taos first and whose paintings now hang in most of the museums in America. They are: Phillips, Blumenschein, Oscar Edmund Berninghaus, Victor Higgins, E. Irving Couse, Joseph Henry Sharp and Walter Ufer. By 1915 there were enough artists painting in Taos that the Taos Society of Artists was formed.
Before a year was up, the art scene, already lively and contentious, was further activated by the arrival of Maurice Sterne and his wife Mabel who was soon to take her place as the queen of this southwestern Bohemia.
Mabel's presence here soon elicited visits from her famous artists friends and the "golden age" of Taos began. After she divorced Sterne to marry Tony Luhan from Taos Pueblo, the Honorable Dorothy Brett, with her brass ear-trumpet named Toby arrived with D.H. and Frieda Lawrence. Mabel, Frieda and Brett were friendly, if public, rivals for the rest of their lives. Old timers speak of this period with great fondness. One could visit the Don Fernando Hotel at any time and see someone interesting, if not both interesting and famous. Parties--with legal liquor after Prohibition and with plenty of illegal liquor during (rum runners from Mexico arriving at 3 a.m. like clockwork)--were great centers of conversation where exciting people did and said exciting things.
Invited by Mabel, Georgia O'Keeffe was soon on the scene to add the strokes of her brush and more good talk when Mabel and she fought and she left Mabel's to take up residence, first at the newly built Sagebrush Inn, then for many years in Abiquiu.
Skiing was already becoming popular in the late 1920's. Skis were ordered from Sears, Roebuck; the men often skied shirtless; and the cabin in Taos Canyon which served as a skiing headquarters saw many competitions among the ladies for fabulous lunch preparations.

Taos today exhibits the fruits of this sometimes arduous, often frivolous, early art colony. There are many galleries, museums, fabulous ski slopes, places to wine and dine and a raft of late twentieth century Bohemians.

Taos Links (Galleries+Museum)

Act I Gallery
ArtTaos
Art Art Bo-Bart
Arts and Galleries
Terry Bennett Gallerie
Birdstar Gallery
Blue Rain Gallery
Brazos Fine Art
Bryans Gallery
Jennifer Cavan Studio
Collector's Guide - facts about Taos
Dearing Galleries
Desert Moon Gallery
Desurmont Art Gallery
Dos Lunas Gallery
Farnsworth Gallery of Taos
Fenix Gallery
Four Corners Gallery
Gallery A
Gallery Elena
Goebel Gallery
Harwood Museum
Historic 802 Gallery
Inger Jirby Gallery
Claudia Eve Kleefeld
Las Comadres Gallery
Lumina Contemporary Art
Kit Lynch's Purple Canyon Arts Gallery
Michael McCormick Galleries
Jerry Mann Gallery
Mission Gallery
Native American Artists' Home Page
Navajo Gallery
New Directions Gallery
Nichols Taos Fine Art Gallery
Parks Gallery
Robert L. Parsons Fine Art
R B Ravens Gallery
Rane Gallery
Rockwell Museum of Western Art
Sage Fine Art
Shriver Gallery
Alexandra Stevens Fine Art
Starr Gallery
Still Water Studios
Studio de Colores Gallery
Taos Art Association
Taos Mosaic
Taos Museum Directory
Taos Artist and Galleries
Van Vechten-Lineberry Taos Art Museum
(The Van Vechten-Lineberry Taos Art Museum closed its doors to the public almost three years ago..The collection of that museum found a new home a block away at Nicolai Fechin’s home. They are now the Taos Art Museum + Fechin House artTaos Art Museum & Fechin House at 227 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos NM )
The Taos School
Taos Society of Artists
Taos Vacation Guide Total Arts Gallery
Variant Gallery
Wade Gallery
Wilder Nightingale Fine Art
H.A. Wyndham Gallery
Zane Wheeler Gallery

List of Museums with works by Taos Society Artist members in the collection (outside New Mexico)

Eiteljor Museum of American Indians and Western Ant, Indianapolis, IN
Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, Tulsa, OK
Panhandle-Plains Historial Museum, Canyon, TX
Stark Museum, Orange, TX
Woolaroc Museum, Barltesville, OK

This page brought to you by:
Brigitte Gastel Lloyd
Email: brigitte@qrz.com