The Southwest Exhibition, November 1-December 31, 1928

In 1894, at the Academie Julian in Paris, France two American artists, Bert Phillips and Ernest Blumenschein, were told of the natural landscape and native peoples of Taos, New Mexico by Joseph Sharp who had traveled there in 1893. The three of them envisioned a “Real American Art” based on uniquely American imagery and Native American symbolism.

Phillips and Blumenschein traveled to Taos in 1898 to establish what became a major colony of artists. Blumenschein was particularly inspired by the Mexican and Native American people who cultivated the land. Taos was a sort of eden, in a fertile garden spot protected by the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) Mountains, named by the first Westerners to settle the area, the Spanish.

By 1915, six professional artists had made Taos the focus of their work, calling themselves the Taos Society of Artists. They then began sending circuit exhibitions of their paintings across the United States in hopes of exposing audiences to new cultures, new visions, and a new landscape. This put Taos “on the map” as an art destination, making it one of the most important art colonies in America. It is today one of the oldest art colonies still in existence. Taos Society of Artists lasted until 1927, by which time there were 12 active members, many of whom exhibited in the 1928 exhibition at the Legion of Honor.

Prompted by the reputation of Taos Society of Artists and later enhanced by the presence of socialite and art patron, Mabel Dodge Luhan, who assisted with organizing this exhibition, the Taos art community expanded rapidly and with amazing diversity. From the post-war modernists and the Wurlitzer artist-in-residency program attendees. Taos has also fostered the likes of RC Gorman and the contemporary native art movement, and recently the practitioners of new media, digital arts, film, and glass arts. Today Taos remains a vital and ever-growing artists’ milieu.

By the 1928 exhibition at the Legion of Honor, the Santa Fe Colony had also grown into an artists colony where artists from all corners of the United States made it their summer working ground. Santa Fe was originally occupied by a number of Pueblo villages founded between 1050 to 1150 CE. Most archaeologists agree that these sites were abandoned 200 years before the Spanish arrived and there is little evidence of their remains in Santa Fe today. Santa Fe was first inhabited by the Spanish in 1607 and grew after Conquistador Don Pedro de Peralta moved the capital of the Spanish-conquered ""Kingdom of New Mexico"" in 1609-1610, the seat of power for the Spanish Empire north of the Rio Grande.

During the 17th century, Spanish soldiers and officials, as well as Franciscan missionaries, sought to subjugate and convert the native Pueblo people of the region. In August 1680, the Pueblo successfully revolted against the Spanish invaders, but the capital was reconquered in 1692 when Don Diego de Vargas reconquered the region and entered the capital city after a bloodless siege. From 1682 to 1821, Santa Fe grew and prospered as a city, while keeping the Americans, British and French out. The Spanish formed a peaceful alliance with the Pueblo in an attempt to ward off raids and wars with the Comanche, Apache, and Navajo.

When Mexico gained its independence from Spain, Santa Fe became the capital of the province of New Mexico. The Spanish policy of closed empire ended, and American trappers and traders invaded the region.

During the Mexican American War, Santa Fe was ceded to the United States along with California. A Confederate general briefly claimed the city for the South during the Civil War, until defeated by Union troops. With the arrival of the telegraph in 1868 and the coming of the railroad in 1880, Santa Fe and New Mexico underwent an economic revolution. New Mexico gained statehood in 1912. By then, The Museum of New Mexico had already been opened in 1909, and by 1917, its Museum of Fine Arts was built. The state museum's emphasis on local history and native culture did much to reinforce Santa Fe's image as an "exotic" city.

Today, Santa Fe is recognized as one of the most intriguing urban environments in the nation, due largely to the city's preservation of historic buildings and a modern zoning code, passed in 1958, that mandates the city's distinctive Spanish-Pueblo style of architecture, based on the adobe (mud and straw) and wood construction of the past.

Blumenschein himself noted the difference between the two groups of artists in the exhibition, who were only 75 miles apart from each other. The two locations however were separated by mountains and the art of this exhibition reflected the changes in topography through the region.

Sources:
“100 Years of Art.” Taos.org. Town of Taos, January 20, 2022. https://taos.org/discover/100-years-of-art/.
The Southwest Exhibition at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. San Francisco: California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1928. Exhibition catalogue.
“Tourism Santa Fe History.” Tourism Santa Fe. Accessed April 14, 2022. https://www.santafe.org/visiting-santa-fe/about-santa-fe/history/.