History Overview Of Canyon Road Artist Colony, Santa Fe, NM THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINE Vol. 22, No. 9 October 1994

furospectiveStory by Charles Bennett

anyon Road was initially a trail up the SantaFe River canyon into the mountains. Thiscanyon route was used as a pathway from the

Santa Fe area, where several groupings of PuebloIndian dwellings existed, up the Santa Fe Rivercanyon across the ridge of the Sangire de CristoMountains to the Pecos Pueblo. Later, CanyonRoad was used by Santa Fe woodcutters and othersas an access road to the resources of the nearby for-est and mountains. The earliest known map of San-ta Fe, attributed to Joseph de Urrutia, 1778, depictspresent day lower Canyon Road as an unnamedstreet of residential buildings surrounded by fields.

In the last half century, the Canyon Road andCamino del Monte Sol area has taken on a new per-sona: that of flourishing art center, with a myriad ofgalleries, studios and shops, actively marketing artsand crafts of all descriptions ranging from the naiveto the sublime. But the Canyon Road area has notalways affected the sobriquet "the art and soul ofSanta Fe" as it does today.

Santa Fe has been a magnet for professionalartists since the late 19th century. One of its firstpublic art exhibitions was staged in 1893 in thePalace of the Governors by Warren Rollins. Rollinswas one of a small group of painters who had estab-lished their studios in Taos, and although therewere few painters in Santa Fe at that time, hedecided that there might be sufficient interest toshow and sell his work there.

Rollins made an appointment with TerritorialGovernor LeBaron Bradford Prince and proposedholding an exhibition of paintings. Although thegovernor was not encouraging, Rollins was givenpermission to hang his work in the Palace of theGovernors which had several rooms that the His-torical Society of New Mexico maintained as a pub-

A4

CnincilevrccPloccw

THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINE, October 1994, 15

THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINEvot,.22 No. 9 OcT. 1994

Randall Davey, Market Patzcure 24" x20"

THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINE, October 1994' 16

Tommy Macaione, Santo Fe LandscaPe

William Vincent, Country Shadows

lic museum. The show proved to be a success' and

Rollins remained in Santa Fe to establish the Santa

Fe Art Club and teach classes within the Palace of

the Govenors. Plans are underway to reinstallRollin's studio as a period room at the Palace'

In the early 1900s artists with healih prob-

lems were attracted to the Southwest and to Santa

Fe's Sunmount Sanatorium which specialized in

the treatment of tuberculosis' One of the first was

24" x 30"

Carlos Vierra, a photo$rapher and painter. Another

was prominent portrait painter Sheldon Parsons,

who came in 1913 from New York to re$ain his

health. After a year or so in an apartment in the

Padre Gallegos house on Washin$ton Avenue, Par-

sons and his daughter became caretakers of a house

on Canyon Road that had been recently purchased

by yet another painter, Gerald Cassidy, and his wife,

the talented writer Ina Sizer Cassidy.

About this time another creative couple

arrived in Santa Fe. Poet Alice Corbin Henderson

came to Sunmount Sanatorium with advanced

tuberculosis, accompanied by her artist husband

William Penhallow Henderson and their young

daughter. While Mrs. Henderson was convalescin$

in the sanatorium, father and daughter, Alice,

bought an old adobe house on Camino del Monte

Sol very near its intersection with Canyon Road'

Later, Mrs. Henderson was released from the sana-

torium and rejoined her family. Following her

recovery, Mrs. Henderson became active in town

affairs and in an appearance before city council, she

persuaded the council to re-establish the name of

Camino del monte Sol to the road which had been

dubbed "Telephone Road" several years earlierbecause it had the only telephone line in town'

At this time increasin$ numbers of artists

were finding their way to New Mexico. The openin$

of the Fine Arts Museum in 1917 was a momentous

occasion for Santa Fe. This event featured Santa Fe

and Taos painters and cemented the Museum of

New Mexico's commitment to the arts.

Other artists relocated to Santa Fe in the next

few years, including Olive Rush who in 1920

bought and restored an old adobe house at 630

Canyon Road. This building was nearly 100 years

old at the time of purchase and is one of the few

remaining adobes in Santa Fe which retains its

original mud-plaster walls' The Olive Rush Studio

is perhaps the best example of the kind of studio

established by the artists of the Canyon Road-

Camino del Monte Sol area before 1950.

Not all of the artists who came to Santa Fe

during the 1920s moved into the Canyon Road dis-

trict. At this juncture, many artists chose to live in

the area of College Street (later named Old Santa

Fe Trail) and Buena Vista. At the time this was the

outskirts of town. The true nascence of the Canyon

Road and Camino del Monte Sol area as the heart of

Santa Fe's artist colony can be attributed to the

group of painters known as Los Cinco Pintores, The

Five Painters. This group coalesced in the 1920s,

and consisted of Fremont Ellis, Willard Nash, Jozef

Bakos, Will Shuster and Walter Mruk. When the

five held the first of several annual shows at the art

museum, in December, 1921, Santa Fe had 7,000

denizens and an artist population of 15. The five

artists built adobe houses on Camino del Monte

Sol, near William Penhallow Henderson's studio'

At the invitation of those livin$ and working

oil 24" x36"

oil

SI

in Santa Fe, and with the encouragement of themuseum which frequently provided studio space fornewly arrived painters, artists continued to come toSanta Fe, some to visit and some to stay, and some,like ceramicist Frank Applegate, who came for avisit, but decided to stay. John Sloan, who achievedinternational prominence as an artist during hislifetime, and wife Dolly, first visited Santa Fe in1919, returning to Santa Fe every summer for thenext 30 years. The Sloans lived in a house near thecorner of Canyon Road and Garcia Street. The stu-dio was later used from 1948 to 1975 by theJapanese artist Chuzo Tamotzu. Another painter toarrive and remain during this period was AndrewDasburg and family. Dasburg bought a house onCamino del Monte Sol

In 1928 two young artists from New York,Charles (Chuck) Barrows and Jim Morris, seekingfortune in the Southwest and solace from thespreading economic gloom that was a year later tobecome known as the Great Depression, moved intoa house on Canyon Road. In 1934 Harold E. "Hal"West, a visitor to Santa Fe since 1926, rented ahouse on Canyon Road and sent for his family.After living in some other places in Santa Fe andelsewhere in New Mexico, he established a studioon Canyon Road in 1954. The Hal West Gallerybecame a regular Sathering place for many artistswho had set up studios in the Canyon Road andCamino delMonte Sol district.

Another artist of international repute to selectSanta F e for his home was Randall Davey, who in1920 purchased the Capitan Candelario Martinezproperty at the upper end of Canyon Road. Davey,artist and bon vivant, converted the buildings onthe property including New Mexico's first circularsaw mill, into a residence and studio where he livedand worked until his death in 1964.

Certainly one of the truly unique individualsof the Canyon Road art scene was Alfred Morang, apainter, writer, and accomplished violinist. Morangand his wife Dorothy came to New Mexico in 1937and his studio became a popular gathering place forthe art community of Santa Fe. Besides writing acolumn "Art in the News" for the Santa Fe weeklynewspaper, Morang also had a radio program thatwas on the air for more than 15 years. He startedthe Morang School of Art shortly after his arrival,and influenced many young artists. Each Saturdaynight, the MoranSs held an open house which fewSanta Fe artists missed.

Throughout the 1950s artists continued to bedrawn to the Canyon Road district. In the early1950s artist Tom Dryce was operating the ArtistExchange Gallery in the historic Rafael Borregohouse at 722 Canyon Road. A shop and an artgallery, it was also headquarters for the Santa FeArt Club, which, Dryce recalled in a 1969 interview,"...made history for great social gatherings, talks,plays, musicals, dances (and) art exhibits..." Webb

THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINE, October 1994, 1?

Gerald and InaSizer Cassidy,

ca.l92l-22.Courtesy Museum of New Mexico,

Neg.91628

Tommy Macaione,

Left in 1990,photo - Therese ZucalCourtesy Museum of New Mexico, Neg. 154369

Right ca. 1954-55,Courtesy Museum of New Mexico, Neg. 19631

Courtesy Museum of New Mexico, Neg. 37816

THE SANTA FEAN MACAZINE. Octob€r 1994' 18

Randall Davey.Courtesy Museum of

New Mexico, Neg. 20341

Alfred Morang.photo - Art Taylor

Janet Lippincott.Courtesy Museum of

New Mexico, Neg.51724

John Sloan.photo - Art Taylor

Youngl, a student of Gerald Cassidy, opened hisPuerta de Oro Gallery, housing both his studio and

show rooms, and other artists such as Drew Baci-

galupa who opened the Studio of Gian Andrea,moved into the adobe houses and compounds along

Canyon Road.

In 1961 the Old Santa Fe Association boughtthe Rafael Borrego House, and a coffee house, The

Three Cities of Spain, opened shortly afterward.Canyon Road at this time was still unpaved, and

sometimes virtually impassable because of mud and

chuck holes. In 1964 the road was paved, and more

shops and galleries moved to the old adobes alongi

the ancient winding road.

By 1969 there were, by one estimate, 500 pro-

fessional artists in Santa Fe, although not all ofthem were represented by or showing in locai gal-

leries. At this point there were about 30 studios,galleries and shops on Canyon Road. Artists who

ran their own galleries included Webb Youngl,

known for his landscapes of the Southwest; Janet

Lippincott, on upper Canyon Road, who had estab-

lished her studio in Santa Fe in 1949; Foster Hyatt;

Fritz Scholder; Richard Maitland; and others. Jean

Seth's Canyon Road Gallery showed the work of

contemporary Santa Fe artists, carvings by Ben

Ortega of Tesuque and paintings by the artists who

had come to Santa Fe and Taos decades earlier and

who were now described as painters of ihe "Old

Santa Fe" and "Old Taos" school.

Other Canyon Road galleries representinSgroups of Santa Fe artists were Lorraine Mattock's

Printers Gallery, showing the work of Constance

Counter, William Lumpkins, Matthew Matte, and

others, and Poor Richards', where the work of six

local artists was shown. In 1969, f22, Santa Fe's

first photography gallery opened its doors and was

the talk of the town. Located on Camino del Monte

So1 near the corner of Acequia Madre, the gallery

had 2,600 visitors during its first five months in

.f:i:i:ii:l{art::::,,,

:l::,Lill''lli::.:,:i'

,:,,,:Lilt,;t

Canyon Road at Acequia Madre, ca. 19 15. photo - T. Harmon Parkhurst Courtesy Museum of New Mexico, Neg. I 1047

DUSlNESS.

By 1982 close to 50 galleries and shops onCanyon Road were actively showing the art of SantaFe artists, as well as an impressive array of art andobjets d'art from around the world. In 1983 theRandall Davey Estate was acquired by the NationalAudubon Society. Now a registered historic srteand a bird sanctuary, the house and studio are pre-ser.red as they were duringi Davey's lifetime and are

open to the public.Today virtually every building along the six

blocks of lower Canyon road is devoted to the sale

of fine art, crafts, antiques, collectibles, textiles,fiber arts and clothing - with a few restaurants andwatering holes thrown in. A popular "Art Walk," onFridays duringi the summer months, features art-filled evenings of exhibit openings, artist receptionsand open houses at seventeen Canyon Road gal-leries.

AlthouSh other districts in Santa Fe are now

THE SA\TA FEAN MAGAZINE. October 1994, l9

Fremont Ellis.Courtesy Museum of

New Mexico, Neg. 131507

Olive Rush.Courtesy Museum of

New Mexico, Neg. 19270

also active in showing and marketinpi art, CanyonRoad stands alone as the area to which the earlyartists were drawn. As Alfred MoranS stated in anessay 7o Think of Santa Fe is to Think of itsPainters, in a 1941 issue of The Santa Fean*, "...allphases of art in Santa Fe are typical of the place. Itis an environment that stimulates the best creativeimpulses, and its future is bright r,vith the mysteriesof as yet unborn art."

Works by a number of these early artists willbe presented in an exhibit, The Painters of CangonRoad, opening 5 p.m., October 7, 1994 throughOctober 22, 1994 at William Vincent Fine Art, 415Canyon Road in Santa Fe.

l.Editors'Note: t1",?:-T;[:T:]

A literary magazine published briefly during the NewMexico,Neg.5e757

1940s. There is no relation to this magazine otherthan a similarity of name. ,#

AliceCorbin/Henderson.

WilliamPenhallowAlenderson.