During this time, the Santa Fe Railway was actively engaged in promoting regional tourism and artistic interest
in the Southwest. To that end, beginning in 1892 with Thomas Moran, the Railway provided artists free passage to picturesque locations.
From other artists, the Railway commissioned southwestern pictures for advertisements in popular magazines and for decoration of train
stations and affiliated Harvey restaurants and hotels.
Many forces worked to bring renowned painters, photographers and authors to New Mexico. Among them were the strong beckoning
of those already here. Mabel Dodge Luhan lured artists and authors to New Mexico as tirelessly as a missionary. Among those she "summoned" were D.H.
Lawrence, Marsden Hartley and Andrew Dasburg. Each talented person who came and discovered the richness of the Indian
and Hispanic cultures and the undeniable magnetism of the landscape, in turn encouraged others to come. Another important magnet to northern
New Mexico was the healing, dry air of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Many early artists arrived—some on stretchers—at Sunmount
Sanitarium in Santa Fe seeking relief from debilitating respiratory ailments. Finding the climate salutary and the light inspirational,
most stayed to develop their art and to continue to build the burgeoning artistic community. Among those influential people who recovered
and stayed to add their talents to the magnificent mix were John Gaw Meem, Alice Corbin Henderson, Sheldon Parsons and Carlos
Vierra.
Santa Fe became the center of Anglo interest in Hispanic culture. Ironically, it was a group of non-Hispanic transplants
who led the crusade to preserve Spanish colonial art and urged contemporary craftsmen to revive carving traditions. It was in Santa Fe
that those artists lived who responded to—and painted—Hispanic people and their customs, including the secretive Penitente
rituals. These artists formed a close group within Santa Fe's artistic community. In 1920, Will Shuster and Willard Nash arrived
in Santa Fe. The next year, Shuster, Nash, Fremont Ellis, Walter Mruk, and Jozef Bakos formed the avant-garde group Los
Cinco Pintores. Los Cinco Pintores represented a new, vigorous and original generation of artists. The group held its first exhibition
in December 1921 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe. The group would dissolve in 1926.
The list of influential artists who, drawn to Northern New Mexico by the power of the land, the urging of friends, or
their own failing health, is an impressively long one. As a group, their legacy is a major contribution to mainstream American art; individually,
each has left an imprint on those who followed and on those artists who continue to be enticed by the magic of New Mexico.
For further information, and wonderful reading, about the founders of the Taos and Santa Fe art communities, we recommend
the following books:
Eldredge, Charles C., Julie Schimmel and William H. Truettner. Art in New Mexico, 1900–1945. New York:
Abbeville Press, 1986.
Morrill, Claire. A Taos Mosaic, Portrait of a New Mexico Village. Albuquerque: University
of New Mexico Press 1973.
Robertson, Edna and Sarah Nestor. Artists of the Canyons and Caminos—Santa Fe, the Early Years. Salt Lake
City: Gibbs M. Smith, Inc, 1982.
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