Taos Moderns: Art of the New

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1878610163 ISBN 13: 9781878610164

Publisher: Red Crane Books, 1992

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.

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.

From Library Journal:

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.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.