With Extraordinary Depth and Richness: Phoenix Art Museum Presents an American Master

Star Road and White Sun, 1920, was part of the Phoenix ArtMuseum's American Masterpieces exhibition In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein, the most comprehensive retrospective ever focused on the artist. Photo courtesy of the Albuquerque Museum.

In the fall of 1898, Ernest L. Blumenschein and Bert G. Phillips "discovered" Taos, New Mexico, due to a fortuitous wagon accident. Realizing almost instantly they were meant to settle there, Phillips and Blumenschein founded the Taos Artist Colony. They chose the most talented of the area's artists to join the Taos Society of Artists, which would become the early 20th-century's definitive voice of Western art in America. In a time when industrialization was dawning, Blumenschein's romantic yet realistic depiction of the true America west of the Mississippi made the deserts and villages of New Mexico a destination for artists.

In 2009, the Phoenix Art Museum, in cooperation with Albuquerque Museum of Art and History and Denver Art Museum, will debut In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein, the most comprehensive retrospective ever focused on the artist, comprising 60 paintings and approximately 15 studies, preliminary sketches, photographs, and letters. Blumenschein was a master of color and composition. His early work focused on the mix of Hispanic and Native-American cultures of the Southwest, at that time an unexplored subject in U.S. art. According to Phoenix Art Museum Curator Jerry Smith, "The Taos Society proved to be a major influence on what people thought of Western art, which is, of course, American art."

The exhibition is funded in part with an American Masterpieces grant, which support projects that acquaint Americans with the artistic accomplishments of great American artists.

Blumeschein's mark on American visual arts is indelible. He remains one of the only artists ever to have paintings purchased by both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. He also became an advocate for modernism, helping drive the National Academy to include modern art in its curriculum.

To further the museum's mission of educating and exposing people to high quality art, the Phoenix Museum has created a definitive 400-page guide on Blumenschein's life and works. It also has tailored school tours so the exhibit can be seen by a maximum number of students, even offering to pay for busing.With the rising costs of shipping and insuring artwork, outreach and educational activities often take a back seat. In recognizing this exhibition as an American Masterpiece, the NEA is making it possible for the Phoenix Art Museum to "do much more than just hang paintings on the wall," as Smith puts it.

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
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