Taos Moderns: Art of the New: Art of the New

by David L. Witt

Overview

One of the best-kept secrets of the art world is that important center of postwar modernism: Taos, New Mexico, where the influences of Europe merged and blended with the east and west coasts of the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781878610171
Publisher:	Museum of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	09/01/1992
Edition description:	1st ed
Pages:	136
Sales rank:	830,048
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 12.00(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Art historian and author David L. Witt has been the curator of the Harwood Foundation of the University of New Mexico. He is the past president of the New Mexico Association of Museums and founder of the Southwest Art History Council. Witt is the author of several books, including Modernists in Taos: From Dasburg to Martin.

Editorial Reviews

As defined by Witt, the Taos Moderns were mature artists who came to this special part of New Mexico for its natural beauty in the 1940s and 1950s. Though coming directly after the successful Taos Society of Artists, they had no formal organization. According to Witt, the Moderns focused ``on motif and the manner in which an artwork is developed.'' They held deep, nearly mystical respect for the Native American culture and were drawn to the quality of light, the distant gorges, and the color and sky of Taos. The book's many photographs, which place the Taos Moderns in the social and geographical context of northern New Mexico, include 40 color plates that prove the variety of work produced there. A valuable contribution to the merger of artists, place, and time that made the Taos Moderns, this is recommended for most libraries.-- David Bryant, Belleville P.L., N.J.

Library Journal

This lovely and lively volume on the modern artists that lived in Taos, New Mexico between the mid-1940s and the early 1960s reveals the ways in which the community became an important crossroads in modern abstract painting--a place where the influences of Europe merged and blended with the East and West Coasts of the US. With 30 color plates and many b&w photographs. 9.25x12.25". Published by Red Crane Books, 826 Camino de Monterey, Santa Fe, NM 87501. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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