The Taos Society of Artists was founded in 1915 in a small community in New Mexico. The area was a magnet for artists worldwide for its landscapes and proximity to the area's Pueblo and Hispanic cultures.
The group's founders were W.H. Dunton, J.H. Sharp, O.E. Berninghaus, E.I. Couse, B.G. Phillips, and E.L. Blumenschein. It was dedicated to representing the area's people and landscape. One woman and five men later joined the artists: Catharine C. Critcher, E. Martin Hennings, Julius Rolshoven, Victor Higgins, Walter Ufer, and Kenneth Adams.
The loose-knit organization ended in 1927, but by then, it had put its stamp on Taos as an art colony that continues to attract creative people worldwide. The Harwood Museum of Art in Taos is a wonderful institution built around the works of the early artists. It is well worth a visit.
One of these artists was a man who brought a more modern approach to the group. Kenneth Miller Adams excelled at capturing the expressions of everyday people, Hispanic and Native, and the landscapes in a simple, straightforward manner.
The Kansas native was a latecomer to the group. He was born in 1897, entered the Art Institute of Chicago in 1916, served in World War, studied at the Art Students League in New York, and spent summers at the art colony in Woodstock, NY. From 1921 until 1923, he studied in Paris and, interestingly, returned to his hometown of Topeka, Kansas, to exhibit his work.
In 1924, with an introduction to Walter Ufer, he moved to Taos and became the youngest and last member of the Society. He was more of a modernist, while most of the Society captured the romantic side of the people and the area. He taught at the University of New Mexico branch in Taos. In 1929, famed printmaker B.J.O. Nordfeldt visited the community and suggested that Adams' work would lend itself to printmaking.
Nordfeldt gave Adams several zinc plates and crayons, and he became a lithographer, which became his primary medium. In 1938, after working in the Public Works Art Project during the Depression, he was awarded a Carnegie Corporation Grant to become the first artist-in-residence at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He taught there until 1963 and became a full professor. He was also a member of the National Academy of Design in New York.
He died in 1965, leaving a legacy of art displayed in many of the top museums in America, including the Smithsonian Museum.
His work is not often available for sale, and we are happy to offer these lithographs from a collection in Arroyo Grande, California.
