Gallery A Sanchez Family Estate Sale

On March 2 & 3, the final tip of the hat to a longtime Taos art institution will take place with an estate sale for the remaining collections of the Sanchez family of Gallery A. Two generations of the family ran Gallery A and Gallery 203 for over 50 years. Beginning in 1960 with a partnership between two artists new to Taos, Mario Larrinaga and Eric Gibberd had an idea to create a modern art gallery. They chose Frances Good as the first gallery director, then Mary & Joe Sanchez, and later Jules & Gene Sanchez ran these galleries. The gallery closed a few years ago, the remaining art was all moved to the Sanchez family home in the Taos Historic District. The home was built at the end of De Teves Lane in the mid-40’s. Through the years it would be remodeled to have a large dining room and living room with New Mexico hand carved furniture by Elidio Gonzalez, Patricinio Barela and Pat Trujillo of Taos Pueblo, along with modernist furniture, which was quite Avant Gard for its time. 

Mary Sanchez at work

‘My memories of visiting Gallery A are of grandma (Mary Sanchez) sitting at her desk always working on something busy with paperwork, typing, or crating paintings to be shipped. As children we thought nothing of the art and sculptures, we took it all for granted, these wonderful works of art. At some point Mary opened Gallery 203 next door to Gallery A, eventually the two merged. Grandmother would always say the most important part about business was location, location and location. I would often hear her repeat how people would walk up the north side of Kit Carson road and stop right at the drive way (Barela Lane) where the drive-up dry cleaners, La Bell Cleaners was located.’ Cory Sanchez

Mario Larrinago w Mary Sanchez and gallery assistants

The Gallery A stable of artists along with principles Gibberd & Larrinaga included Emil Bisttram, Dorothy Brett, Howard Cook, Barbara Latham, James Meek, Keneth Adams, Charles Stewart and Gene Kloss. Mary arranged a contract with Kloss to have an exclusive right to all of the Kloss prints sold in Taos.

Mary Sanchez

‘Around 1975 or 1976 business was not going well, apparently that winter there were not a lot of tourist or buyers. One afternoon she came home to say, “Joe, someone walked in today and bought a Larrinaga.” Which she’d sold for $7,000. She was so relieved because for a couple of months there were no sales. Larrinaga was a name my grandmother frequently brought up. Later I realized there were many of his pieces in the house.’  Cory Sanchez

Mary Sanchez & Gene Kloss

Gene Sanchez became enamored with the etchings of Gene Kloss, eventually he compiled, wrote and self published the catalog raisonne of her prints ‘Gene Kloss An American Printmaker, A Raisonne 2 Volumes’ 2009. An extensive southwest book collection along with the history of Gallery A and Gallery 203 has been catalogued and donated to the Lunder Research Center at The Couse-Sharp Historic Site in Taos by the Sanchez family.

‘My father, Gene Sanchez, career was designing schools in Northern NM. It was in the late 90’s that is was suggested for him to leave architecture and help with the gallery, it was time to have a transition. At the time Gene lived in Santa Fe with his wife Jules. During this transition he started to take art classes, eventually showing some of his artworks in the gallery. After some time commuting  and realizing that he enjoyed working at the gallery, the decision was made by him and Jules to move back to Taos. It was quite normal to see art on every wall in the home, Gene Kloss, Howard Cook, Emil Bisttram, Patricinio Barela, Mario Larrinaga etc.’ Cory Sanchez     

Joe & Mary Sanchez, Jules & Gene Sanchez, Anne Liebert and gallery assistants

Taos Artworks by Gene Kloss, Barbara Latham, Mario Larrinaga, Keith Crown, Fran Larsen along with curios, Navajo weavings, Taos Pueblo drums, Furniture, and millstone grinding wheels will be available at the weekend estate sale. The house is full of memories and treasures, an opportunity to own a piece of Taos history.

Gene Sanchez at work

With special thanks to Cory Sanchez for his recollections.

The Gallery A, Gallery 203, Sanchez Family estate sale takes place at 125 de Teves Lane in the Taos Historic District on Saturday March 2 and Sunday March 3, 2024.

Gene Kloss (1903-1996) A Printmaker in Taos

Gene Kloss (1903-1996) Alice Geneva Glasier

Gene Kloss 

“Enduring Sanctuary” 12” x 15”, frame size 21” x 23” (etching, Drypoint & aquatint) 1973, 

50 of the edition of 50

$8,000. SOLD

Thousands of artists have drawn or painted the Ranchos Church, the huge adobe buttresses a unique composition. PK

In 1925 the newly wed Gene & Phillips Kloss honeymooned in New Mexico. “The first site of the vast Taos Plateau left us breathless.” Phillips. In Taos Canyon, Gene “did innumerable paintings and drawings” and produced etchings on a small portable press (a sixty-pound machine) which she had Phillips set up on a tree stump near their campsite. The rare examples of Watercolors, Pen & Ink, Drawings and even Oil Paintings show how immensely talented she was, but Etching (and the variations of etching she developed) was her preferred almost obsessive way of creating art. From my own personal experience at SMFA I understand just how obsessed printmakers can become.

It is through her etchings that Kloss shines as a master of light & darkness, setting the stage onto her rectangular shaped paper surface. Looking at the etchings of Rembrandt, you’ll clearly see just how much of a master of the art form of etching she became. Kloss prints glow and shine through the darkness, the drawing and tonal quality of her hatch marks are precise and complicated. Her forced perspective will draw you into the scene allowing you to be a part of it as if you were witness to a moment in time.  

Gene Kloss' work was exhibited in Paris at the Musee Jeu de Paume in 1938, as part of a leading New Mexican artist exhibition alongside Ernest Blumenschein, Georgia O'Keeffe and John Sloan.

The Klosses attended ceremonial dances at Taos Pueblo so regularly that once when they missed one, their Pueblo friends sent someone to the Kloss home to make sure they were alright. Kloss never owned a camera, but constantly sketched and relied on an impeccable visual memory. “Gene makes memory sketches of indian activities from her own point of view, with respect for the unknowing Indian point of view.” Phillips Kloss

“Her very best work gives us a chance to be in that moment with her. She purposely priced her work, under market value. She wanted to make it accessible to as many people as possible. Gene depicted the life of the people as she saw it at the time (1930’s). In some ways she was capturing something that had been around for centuries. What she saw and what she recorded in her own memories, she passed down to us. Taos has always been, and still is, a place where women who happen to be artists got more attention than other artists (colonies). Taos was a place where artistic talent really was appreciated.” David Witt, for Colores, PBS 10, 23, 2021

Many women artists find a great lack of interest and respect towards their respect work, Kloss used "Gene" (a masculine form of Geneva) when signing her artworks, to avoid prejudices of gender. Since 2019 much like Hilma af Klint, museums, curators and the public alike are searching for that extraordinary ‘undiscovered’ female artist, Kloss has been ‘hiding’ in plain sight here in Taos for almost 100 years.

“What Gene Kloss can catch in metal and oils, Phillips Kloss grasps and paints in words.” Hal Johnson, for Berkley Daily Gazette 11, 14, 1942

‘The Woman in the Woods’ Phillips Kloss

’tis not the grove green hills you love nor blue-green sea,

’tis not the lonely luring trail, ’tis She

and puts the verse in water, rock, and tree.

’tis not the search for the truth that makes your life seem real

nor sense of power. ’tis love’s ideal

that gives the purpose to your thought, the zeal

which even single souls vicarious feel.

Gene Kloss 

“Forsaken Church (on the Edge of the Great Plains) 9 7/8” x 17 7/8” (etching, drypoint) 1979, 

9 of the edition of 25

.…untouched by vandals, it simply had to be sketched. We didn’t inquire its history. It is a sermon to space. PK

Gene Kloss

“Approach of the Victors” 11 3/8” x 7 7/8”, frame size 14.5” x 17.5” (drypoint) 1947, 

Proof from the edition of 10

$1,200.SOLD

Gene Kloss 

“Dance of Domingo” 10 5/8” x 13 5/8”, frame size 18” x 22” (drypoint & aquatint) 1955, 

Proof of the edition of 40

Gene Kloss 

“Taos Eagle Dancers” 10.75” x 13.75”, frame size 20” x 23” (drypoint & aquatint) 1955, 

Proof of the edition of 35

The Eagle dance simulates the movements of the great bird beating its wings to rise from the ground, lifting in the air, soaring in the sky.” PK

Gene Kloss 

"Years Ago in Arroyo Seco"

5 5/8" x 8 1/8" (drypoint etching) 1981

Artist Proof (stated) Edition of 50

Available at R.B. Ravens, Ranchos de Taos

Gene Kloss

"Christmas Processional at Taos II"

9 7/8" x 13 7/8" (drypoint impression) 1948

From the edition of 50 

This was printed by Kloss after the 250 edition printed for the Society of Print Connoisseurs which is titled "Processional - Taos"

Available at R.B. Ravens, Ranchos de Taos

Gene Kloss 

“Watching the Clowns” 11 7/8” x 8 7/8”, frame size 17” x 21” (original watercolor) 1954

Available from Santa Fe Art Auction March 13, 2024

Gene Kloss 

“Rio Grande Canyon (slide trail)” 13.75” x 9.75”, frame size 27” x 20” (original Pen & Ink Drawing) 1936

The basaltic Taos river gorge drops into the basaltic Rio Grande Gorge, a ledge road hanging over a precipice once the main road between Santa Fe and Taos. You went up in low gear and down in low gear. You hugged the inside rut when the road was icy hoping your car wouldn’t decide to make a ski slide out of it. PK

Available from Santa Fe Art Auction March 13, 2024

Gene Kloss

“Singers Over the Bridge” 10 7/8” x 13 7/8”, frame size 22” x 19.5” (etching, drypoint) 1961, 

48 of the edition of 50

$3,600.

Available through Wilder Nightingale Fine Art, Taos

Gene Kloss

“Zero Weather” 8 3/4” x 14 3/4”, frame size 23.5” x 19.5” (drypoint, aquatint) 1960, 36 of the edition of 50

$3,600.

Available through Wilder Nightingale Fine Art, Taos

‘Winter Sonnet’ Phillips Kloss (1902-1995)

When Taos was Taos years yond ago,

valley and mountains sky-enchanted,

streams aflow with melting snow,

fields sheen green new-ploughed new-planted,

there you could live in an ageless age,

live in the cedars, live in the sage,

cedar and sage, wild rose, wild plum,

Indian song and Indian drum.

’tis not to deny the mind’s delight -

imagine, explore, invent, create -

’tis living more natural, primitive, right

fulfilling the faith that you advocate.

Don’t seek tomorrow, go back there

in the pine, in the spruce, in the balsam air,

in the cedars and sage, wild rose, wild plum,

fear nothing that will come.

(Poetry works from “Taos Chants” by Phillips Kloss 1974)

Gene Kloss

“Magpies & Red Tailed Hawk” 14 7/*” x 8 7/8”, frame size 17” x 21” (etching, drypoint) 1962, Proof from the edition of 50

$3,600.

Available through Wilder Nightingale Fine Art, Taos

They ganged up on him, yak yak sacked at him for trespassing on their territory. He regarded them with imperturbable disdain. Handsome birds, black and white and iridescent green, they made lively patterns in the stark trees. PK

Gene Kloss 

Taos Devil Dancers 20” x 22” Giclee

$100. (unframed) SOLD

Partly an entertainment dance, partly an exorcise dance, the Devil Dance is put on by a group going from house to house. PK

Gene Kloss

“Morning Worship” 22” x 18.5” Giclee

$100. (framed) SOLD

Gene Kloss An American Printmaker, A Raisonne

2 Volume set

written by Gene Sanchez

SOLD OUT

Gene Kloss Poster, framed $75.

Photograph by Dick Spas of the Gallery A storefront on Kit Carson Road

“It was about 1937… when I first saw her etchings, I remember I stopped by La Fonda Hotel (Taos) and her etchings were spread out in a back room. There was one - ‘Snow and Adobe’  (1934) - I had to have it. I had 68 cents with me and Dixie Yapple, who ran the gallery (Taos Heptagon Gallery), said ‘Why don’t you go ahead and get it. You can pay a little at a time.’ You know that was my grocery money, but I bought that etching for $5.” Mary Sanchez, from Pasatiempo, Santa Fe New Mexican 7, 7-13, 2000 

“Kloss was amazingly humble and talented. She set out to capture the images and history of New Mexico and accomplished it like few others. The quality and integrity of her work is hard to compete with.” Jules Sanchez, from Taos Magazine, May-June 2005

Gallery A scenes at 1996 opening for Gene Kloss Works of Art

Gallery A was the exclusive dealer for the artworks of Gene Kloss for over 50 years. The artworks shown here by Gene Kloss are the last of the Sanchez family collection the former owners of Gallery A. 

Two Graces in the Taos historic district at 105 Barela Lane is the exclusive representative for these last few prints from the Sanchez/Gallery A collection. We will have this selection available at the gallery from December 16, 2023 - January 3, 2024, after this time period the artworks will be available on a by appointment only schedule.

Christmas Card of Enduring Sanctuary in Snow

Mezzotint printed by Bill Jackson

Prints by Taos Artists also available from the collection of the Sanchez Estate 

Emil Bisttram 

“Ranchos Church” Lithograph 12” x 18” 

$750.

Eric Gibberd 

Linocut Taos Pueblo 17” x 20” 

$200.

Pat Dagnon 

“Dance” Crane Etching 15” x 12” 

$150.

Pat Dagnon 

“Unison” Cranes Etching 15” x 12” 

$150.

Joseph Imhoff

Thank You Lithograph

$100.

Janet Lippincott 

Portrait 1985 35” x 27” 

$2,000.

Janet Lippincott 

“Blue Still Life” 34” x 27” 

$1,800.

Nicolai Fechin Portfolio of 16 Prints 

$250.

Barbara Latham

“Mexican Kitchen” print

$150.

Howard Cook

“Tio Vivo” print 1950

$150.

Ted Egri 

Lithograph Church w Steeple 9.5” x 12” 

$50.

Japanese print on rice paper

Ando Hiroshige

$75.

 

Ila McAfee Miniature Portrait Taos Pueblo Man

 Ila McAfee (Turner) 1897-1995

Studied in Los Angeles, CA, Chicago, IL, New York, NY, moved to Taos, NM in 1928. She remained in Taos for twenty-five years before moving back to Colorado. She is noted for her paintings of animals, horses in particular.

A 3”x3” in a 4 5/8”x5 1/8” frame, an oil painting portrait on canvas of a Taos Pueblo gentleman. Sgrafitto signature on the front and her written signature on the back brown paper.

Note the earring and braids tied in red (denoting a particular society group that this man belonged to), with Taos Pueblo and blue mountain in background. Dated to 1930, signed on front and notation on back. The man wears a robe (an indication of stature) of green, the color of life, renewal, nature and energy, associated with growth, harmony, safety and the environment and around him. 

Portraits and the portrait miniatures of the people in Taos are some of Ila’s best work, yet still she was known as the painter of horses. Most portraits are on simple backgrounds. This rare Portrait of a Taos Pueblo Man by Ila McAfee includes views of the Taos Blue Mountain and the Taos Pueblo in the background. 

From Ila's book "Indians, Horses, Hills, et cetera..." : 'Sun Lightning' was his indian name. I would meet him out in the sage and sun and there, wrapped in a bright colorful blanket, he sat on his horse. I painted him with a mountain or prairie as a background in the center of a beautiful setting. People from Taos Pueblo have identified him as Joe ‘Sunhawk’ Sandoval, along with pointing out the hoop earring and red colored ribbon wrapping his braids. The book includes this illustration of the man she refers to.

In a sketch by Ernest Blumenschein a similar looking Pueblo Man is depicted.

Ila met her husband to be Elmer Page Turner (yes, read it again ‘Elmer page turner’) through art classes at the Chicago Art Institute in 1920, whom she married in 1926. Ila and Elmer designed and helped build their home on what was then known as Armory Street, now Civic Plaza Drive, which was finished by the end of 1928. Named the “White Horse Studio” it is an assuming two story house nestled into now a busy street. It is thought that Ila carved the animal figures into the lintels over the exterior door and windows. A viewing of the videos Ila McAfee’s Trained Cats in particular Sanka the Siamese, will give you an inside look into their home.

Little known and seemingly forgotten about McAfee is that she designed fabrics, wrapping paper, dishes, calendars and illustrated the cover of “How to Draw Horses” by Walter Foster

Ila McAfee is included in the book “Taos and its Artists” Mabel Dodge Luhan 1947. As one of the earliest painters in Taos, she is considered today one of the very best. Voted Taos Artist of the Year in 1981.

This Painting has been SOLD