Taos treasures

“Enchanted Visions: The Taos Society of Artists and Ancient Cultures” transports the viewer to early 20th century New Mexico – a magical time and place in Southwest art. Walking through this newest exhibit at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture is a glimpse into the blending of Anglo artists with ancient cultures. The expansive display combines powerful paintings created by members of the first artist colony in Taos with Southwest American Indian art and artifacts, objects of Hispanic culture, and historic photographs.

Don’t expect to see large paintings of vast, raw desert landscapes or dazzling Southwest sunsets.

Do expect to see more intimate paintings and indigenous artifacts of a human scale.

There are portraits and genre renderings of daily activities such as weaving, farming and community ceremonials.

“The focus of the exhibit,” says museum art curator Jochen Wierich, “is the relationships, the interactions, between these newly arrived Euro-American artists and the descendants of Spanish, Mexican and Pueblo Indian heritage who had settled the region centuries earlier.”

Go West, young painters

Artist Joseph Henry Sharp first stumbled into Taos in the mid-1890s and was captivated by the magnificent landscapes and the people who lived there.

When he was in Paris a couple of years later, Sharp spoke with young artists Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Geer Phillips about the visual splendor of the northern region of the then-New Mexico territory.

Once back in New York City, Blumenschein, then 24 years old, and Phillips, then 30, were growing weary of painting the same scenes and subjects. In 1898, they headed West for new material.

As the story goes, they hopped a train to Denver, then hitched up a wagon and started south for Mexico. About 20 miles north of Taos they broke a wagon wheel and in the few days it took to fix it, they changed their minds about Mexico.

“My grandfather fell in love with Taos, the vivid colors and unbelievable landscapes,” says Phillips’ grandson, Martin Phillips, who lives in Spokane and helped organize the exhibit.

“He decided to stay and became the first of the Taos artists to live there year-round. His address was ‘Bert Phillips, Box 1, Taos, New Mexico.’ Those were pretty wild and wooly days.”

Blumenschein joined Phillips every summer and other artists began trickling in. They were all drawn to the area by the majestic landscape, breathtaking skies and constantly changing light. The Southwest became a vast source of new material for artists in the early 20th century.

By 1915 six of them formed the Taos Society of Artists. Over the next few years six more joined the group.

“Most of them were academically trained,” says Martin Phillips, “and they were recording a lot of early Western Americana.”

During the dozen years of group’s existence, the prolific artists made a profound impact on establishing Taos as one of the best-known art colonies in North America.

Stark Museum of Art

The core group of the paintings in this show is on loan from the Stark Museum of Art in Texas.

“We couldn’t have done this exhibition without the 20 paintings from the Stark Museum,” says art curator Wierich.

Wealthy Texas oilman H.J. Lutcher Stark loved Western art.

“Every summer between 1945 and 1961, he would drive to Taos with two cars – one was for his family and friends and the other to fill up with paintings to take back to Texas,” says Richard Hunter of the Stark Museum.

During that time Stark collected “on a massive scale,” says Hunter. “He bought more than 600 Taos paintings.”

Most of those paintings have never left Texas since they were acquired.

It took the MAC’s chief executive officer, Bruce Eldredge, to grease the way. As the former director of the Stark Museum, he knew who to ask.

“The loan of these paintings and the Stark Museum’s financial support of the catalog made it possible for these wonderful works to be seen by a Pacific Northwest audience,” Eldredge says.

The exhibition also includes works from the Gilcrease Museum and Philbrook Museum of Art (both in Tulsa, Okla.), the Washington State University Art Museum and a few private collections, including Martin and Margie Phillips’.

Ancient cultures

In addition to the three dozen paintings, there are nearly 40 Hispanic and Southwest Indian objects, many from the museum’s permanent collection.

“We surrounded the Taos paintings with objects the artists might have seen every day and included in their paintings,” says Wierich.

Many of their works included santos (carved saint figures), retablos (paintings depicting saints), locally made wool blankets and carved wooden chests.

When the artists arrived they “found more than an isolated quaint ensemble of sleepy Spanish villages and an adjacent stoic adobe Indian pueblo,” says Antonio Sanchez in his essay in the show’s catalog.

“What they encountered was a vibrant community woven together by destiny and history,” he writes. “The Hispanic and Mestizo (mixed Indian and Spanish blood) Taoseños played a major role in the support of this famous art colony and in nurturing its creativity.”

Spanish and Mestizo artists and crafters produced works of religious art to adorn the mission churches. Joseph Henry Sharp’s oil painting, “Santos Mender,” shows a Hispanic artisan in his humble studio restoring a crucifix.

Collectively and individually, the Taos artists “shaped an image of the Southwest that still resonates with us today,” says Wierich.

“We hope that this exhibition serves as a reminder that they did so in collaboration with local Taos Indians and Hispanics who made the enterprise possible.”