WEBVTT - Some title 00:03.000 --> 00:06.000 The artworks in this bay were painted by some of the 00:06.000 --> 00:09.500 founders of the Taos Society. One of its most accomplished 00:09.500 --> 00:12.600 members was Ernest Blumenschein, whose painting, 00:12.600 --> 00:15.700 The Peacemaker, hangs in the far right-hand corner. 00:15.700 --> 00:19.900 Its meaning, like many modern works, is open to interpretation. 00:19.900 --> 00:24.700 Kim Wiggins: "Look at Blumenschein's work and you see 00:24.700 --> 00:29.100 this incredible modern quality to his work. This 00:29.100 --> 00:32.700 piece centers around confrontation. And, what 00:32.700 --> 00:36.900 the artist did here is he used this vast Taos gorge 00:36.900 --> 00:40.400 running through the base of the painting, and separating 00:40.400 --> 00:43.700 two sets of figures. The interesting thing is that 00:43.700 --> 00:48.100 this was painted from the point of view of the child. 00:48.100 --> 00:52.200 And once you realize that, you begin to think that 00:52.200 --> 00:57.600 probably the child is the true peacemaker." Blumenschein 00:57.600 --> 01:00.700 was a New York based illustrator, and made his first 01:00.700 --> 01:05.000 trip to the West in 1898. That's when he discovered 01:05.000 --> 01:09.900 Taos. It would become his home in 1919. He later recalled 01:09.900 --> 01:14.000 his first impressions: "The great naked anatomy for 01:14.000 --> 01:17.900 a majestic landscape once tortured, now calm; the 01:17.900 --> 01:20.900 fitness of adobe houses to their tawny surroundings; 01:20.900 --> 01:25.300 the vastness and overwhelming beauty of skies; terrible 01:25.300 --> 01:30.100 drama of storm; peace of night... the superb beauty and 01:30.100 --> 01:35.700 serenity of the hills, stirred me deeply." Blumenschein's 01:35.700 --> 01:38.800 Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the wall to the right 01:38.800 --> 01:42.800 is one of the treasures of this collection. Museum 01:42.800 --> 01:46.700 Director Sarah Hunt: "This is a great example of one 01:46.700 --> 01:49.800 of the important aspects of this collection, in that 01:49.800 --> 01:53.300 the collector was not content simply to have an image 01:53.300 --> 01:56.800 by Blumenschein. If, and whenever possible, he would 01:56.800 --> 01:59.400 want to look for the best example of a Blumenschein." 01:59.400 --> 02:03.200 It demonstrates the artist's evolution from realism 02:03.200 --> 02:07.000 toward abstraction, inspired, in part, by an art show 02:07.000 --> 02:11.100 held at the Armory in New York in 1913 that gave Americans 02:11.100 --> 02:13.800 their first glimpse of non-representational art. 02:16.400 --> 02:19.400 Victor Higgins, one of the members of the Society. 02:19.400 --> 02:24.000 The colorful Pueblo of Taos, from the 1920s, depicts 02:24.000 --> 02:27.000 the Pueblo's residents assembling for the Fiesta 02:27.000 --> 02:31.000 of San Geronimo. Higgins was influenced by Modernist 02:31.000 --> 02:35.000 trends, such as Cubism, and the work of other Taos artists. 02:36.000 --> 02:39.000 On the right wall is Walter Ufer's group portrait, 02:39.000 --> 02:43.400 Paint and Indians. Sarah Hunt: "Paint and Indians is 02:43.400 --> 02:46.800 a particular favorite of mine, a realistic painting 02:46.800 --> 02:52.200 that really isn't. We know that this is Ufer himself, 02:52.200 --> 02:55.000 in his studio, and behind his shoulder his houseman 02:55.000 --> 02:59.400 and friend, Jim Mirabal, and probably Mirabal's wife 02:59.400 --> 03:02.400 is the woman here who glowers at the artist. Ultimately, 03:02.400 --> 03:05.000 it's really a painting about the nature of reality, 03:05.000 --> 03:09.200 in that we are looking at an artist painting a portrait 03:09.200 --> 03:11.400 that could be a mirror image of what is going on in 03:11.400 --> 03:14.000 the studio. It's really an interesting intellectual 03:14.000 --> 03:17.200 exercise, the more time you spend looking at this painting." 03:19.000 --> 03:21.300 Santa Fe was eager to establish its own 03:21.300 --> 03:24.800 art colony to rival that of nearby Taos, and lured 03:24.800 --> 03:27.800 artists there with promises of free studio and exhibition 03:27.800 --> 03:32.300 space. On the left wall of this bay are two paintings 03:32.300 --> 03:36.000 by one of those artists, Józef Bakós, who was fascinated 03:36.000 --> 03:39.200 by the mingling of American Indian and Spanish cultures 03:39.200 --> 03:43.500 in the Southwest. "In these works, you're really able to experience 03:43.500 --> 03:47.700 this long history of Hispanic culture, from the Spanish 03:47.700 --> 03:52.000 in the 16th century. These works speak to the 03:52.000 --> 03:57.000 presence of crucifixes, santos, retablos, Hispanic 03:57.100 --> 03:59.000 furniture. Many of these artists painted those 03:59.000 --> 04:02.200 elements, but some of them actually collected Hispanic 04:02.200 --> 04:05.100 folk art. And so, a lot of that appears in the works 04:05.100 --> 04:07.000 of the Santa Fe artists, in particular." 04:09.000 --> 04:14.400 To the right is Chama Running Red, by John Sloan. A New Yorker, Sloan 04:14.400 --> 04:18.200 took his first trip to Santa Fe in 1919 and thereafter 04:18.200 --> 04:21.700 spent several months a year in the Southwest. He 04:21.700 --> 04:25.400 said that in this painting: "The river is running like 04:25.400 --> 04:28.400 pink tomato soup down to the Rio Grande and the Gulf 04:28.400 --> 04:32.900 of Mexico, carrying off the good red earth." Above the 04:32.900 --> 04:35.700 door on your right is a portrait of a young resident 04:35.700 --> 04:40.500 of the Pueblo Tesuque, painted by Robert Henri in 1917. 04:40.500 --> 04:44.100 Henri is more typically associated with paintings 04:44.100 --> 04:47.700 of gritty scenes of New York City, but here he uses his 04:47.700 --> 04:50.900 bravura brushwork and colorful palette to capture 04:50.900 --> 04:54.500 the atmosphere of the West. "I think most pictures 04:54.500 --> 04:58.500 of the Southwest are to a great extent false because the 04:58.500 --> 05:02.800 painters get blinded into whiteness, make pale pictures 05:02.800 --> 05:06.700 where the real color of New Mexico is deep and strong." 05:07.700 --> 05:10.800 Henri was a renowned teacher and introduced many 05:10.800 --> 05:14.300 of the students and other artists to Santa Fe. One 05:14.300 --> 05:17.100 of them was George Bellows, whose painting Pueblo, Tesuque, 05:17.100 --> 05:21.400 Number One hangs to the lower right. Another 05:21.400 --> 05:24.000 New York artist famous for his scenes of urban life, 05:24.000 --> 05:27.600 he, too, fell in love with the Southwest. Perhaps the 05:27.600 --> 05:30.500 bustling communal pueblos of New Mexico, like this 05:30.500 --> 05:32.200 one, reminded him of his hometown.