Turn in the Road, Old Ledoux St., Ward Lockwood

Exhibition Label: "This Land," Mar-2014, Kate Meyer The southwest is the great playground of the White American. -D.H. Lawrence, “Just Back from the Snake Dance,” 1924 Beginning in the mid- to late-19th century, health seekers, writers, and artists have flocked to the Taos Valley of New Mexico. The brilliant landscape, with its mountains, meadows, and adobes is populated by Native Americans, descendants of Spanish settlers, and Anglo Americans. The diverse populace provided inspiration for E. Irving Couse and other founding members of the Taos Society of Artists, who often sentimentalized and romanticized their portrayals of Pueblo culture. Later arrivals to the art colony, such as Andrew Dasburg and Ward Lockwood, found greater fascination in the topography and climate. Lockwood professed to adore Taos, “not because it is the home of the Indians. That is incidental. It is the landscape that sets Taos apart from and above other haunts of the artist.”