Taos Museums and Historic Sites, a selection of Twelve

 Taos Museums and Historic Sites, a selection of Twelve

The following is a list of a few of the recommended Museums & Sites here in Taos, NM. Most are fairly self explanatory, self guiding (one is by appointment only, another is not open to the public but you are allowed to wander the grounds there). There are however many ‘Off the Beaten Track’ type of historic sites around Taos, which I do offer tours of. I’ve also included a couple of books for each place which may be valuable to those of you who would like to know more. We try to keep these books in stock at Two Graces, 135 North Plaza, Taos. The best book about all things Taos and a flavor of this wonderful place.

“A Taos Mosaic” Claire Morrill

Taos Art Museum at Fechin House, 227 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Taos 575-758-2690

With the addition of a new wing there are now three separate components to the Taos Art Museum. The entryway is now through the new wing which is featuring installations selected from the permanent collections. Inside the main house exhibitions tend to include artworks by Nicolai Fechin where you’ll notice his carved additions to the house itself. At the back garden is the Fechin studio where the gift shop is located and the actual studio space which has been featuring exhibitions of local contemporary New Mexico artists.

“Fechin the Builder” Aya Fechin 

“Nicolai Fechin" Mary Balcomb

Harwood Museum of Art, 238 Ledoux Street, Taos 575-758-9826

The Museum features a room of paintings by Agnes Martin which has become a destination for contemporary art lovers. The downstairs level has a rotating selection of Taos Society of Artists and Taos Moderns, a new wing features rotating exhibits. Upstairs features some of the historic Spanish Colonial retablos and bultos along with carvings by Patricino Barela, there are two other spaces on this second level that are utilized to show Contemporary Art of Taos and rotating featurettes.

“Taos Artists and Their Patrons” Dean Porter 

“Agnes Martin Pioneer, Painter, Icon” Henry Martin

Couse-Sharp Historic Site & Lunder Research Center, 146 & 138 Kit Carson Road, Taos 575-751-0369

This historic site tends to be by appointment only for a tour of the collections. However the Lunder Research Center has been featuring well curated exhibitions in its gallery space. There are also exhibits in the Luna Chapel from time to time which can be available for viewing by asking at the Lunder.

“Taos Society of Artists” Robert White 

“Paintbrushes and Pistols” Ted Schwartz

Millicent Rogers Museum, 1504 Millicent Rogers Rd, El Prado 575-758-2462

Featuring collections of Jewelry, Pueblo Pottery, Native Basketry, NM Weavings, Spanish Colonial Artworks and a rotating exhibition program the museum has an entire wing dedicated to the Black Pueblo Pottery of Maria Martinez and her family. It is a finely curated selection of the arts & crafts of northern New Mexico.

“A Life in Full Millicent Rogers” Bachrach, Murphy & Nasse 

“Searching for Beauty Millicent Rogers” Cherie Burns

The Kit Carson House & Museum, 113 Kit Carson Rd, Taos 575-758-4945

As a destination for scholars and lovers of the Historic Old West the Carson House may just be the most popular museum in Taos. The buildings seem to be finally receiving some much needed TLC along with better displays of historic artifacts.

“Blood and Thunder” Hampton Sides 

“Kit Carson Autobiography” Kit Carson

Ernest L. Blumenschein Historic Home Museum, 222 Ledoux St, Taos 575-758-0505

Visitors to Taos may not have this museum on their to do list, however that’s a mistake. This home is a self guided treasure chest of the life of an artist and his family in Taos. Artworks featured in this house are a true history of how friendships and support among the artists of Taos grew an art colony together. 

“Ernest L. Blumenschein” Robert & Carole Larson 

“Sights and Sounds of Taos Valley” Helen Greene Blumenschein

Hacienda de los Martinez Historic Home & Museum, 708 Hacienda Road, Taos 575-758-1000

Without a doubt the Martinez Hacienda is the go to place for a dose of Hispanic life in Taos. Entryway doors through the two placita areas lead to rooms that are full of artifacts that supported a thriving Hispanic community. This is a taste of what Taos has been about for centuries since the settlement of the Spanish Colonists.

“Death Comes for the Archbishop” Willa Cather 

“Padre Martinez: New Perspectives From Taos” A.E. Mares

Governor Bent Museum, 117A Bent Street, Taos 575-758-2376

Perhaps the most unusual ‘museum’ in the Taos Historic District, this place comes as close to a Cabinet of Curiosities as you’ll find here in northern New Mexico. 

“Revolt at Taos” James Crutchfield 

“Cabinet of Curiosities” Patrick Mauries

Taos Pueblo, 120 Veterans Highway, Taos 575-758-1028 

The Village of the original people of Taos sits on each side of the Rio Pueblo, you’ll notice the magnificent multi storied adobe structures. Today there are gift shops inside many of the ground floor buildings at the back of which are often living quarters. This is a living Native American community where people have lived continuously for 1,000 years, please be respectful to the community during your time here. Although this is not a museum, there is an admission fee which you’ll pay at the visitor center near the parking areas. 

“Taos Pueblo” Elsie Clews Parsons 

“The Man Who Killed the Deer” Frank Waters

San Francisco de Asis Church, 60 St. Francis Plaza, Ranchos de Taos 575-758-2754

This grand monument is an active Catholic Church best known for the many photographs and paintings of its enormous back buttresses. The interior features Bulto carvings of Saints made by historic local craftspeople along with the most magnificent altar (reredo) screen at the right side nave. (No Admission Fee)

“Centuries of Hands” Van Dorn Hooker 

“Spirit & Vision” D’Emilio, Campbell, Kessell

Mabel Dodge Luhan House, 240 Morada Lane, Taos 575-758-9686

Morada de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Historic Site Penitente Lane, Taos

The Luhan house hosted many grand salons and parties during its 100 year time frame. Today it is a B&B and artist workshop retreat center, visitors are allowed to wander midday for a few hours. 

At the nearby Penitente Morada you may wander around outside or starting at the larger black cross choose to walk the Stations of the Cross right of way which is a fenced in lane taking you to a large mounted white cross, (rocks at the right side of the path mark each of the 14 stations). (No Admission Fee)

“Winter in Taos” Mabel Dodge Luhan 

“Mabel Dodge Luhan and Company” Lois Rudnick

D.H. Lawrence Ranch, 506 DH Lawrence Road, Taos 575-776-2245

In 1922 & 1924 DH Lawrence lived at a ranch in Taos near the outlier village of San Cristobal where he wrote and edited some of his books and poetry. When his wife Frieda moved back to Taos she had a new house built on the property until later moving closer into the town of Taos proper. Frieda and DH Lawrence are buried on a hill at the ranch which is a pilgrimage site for writers and admirers from all over the world. The ranch is open midweek to the public for very minimal hours, check ahead. (No Admission Fee)

“DH Lawrence in New Mexico” Arthur Bachrach

“A Poet and Two Painters” Knud Merrild

Taos can be a sleepy hamlet of a village during the Winter months (typically November - March) thus many of these places change to limited Winter Hours. Please research visiting hours before you plan your itinerary. Please be supportive of the shops and museums here in Taos, Two Graces strives to be an authentic and informative store here at Taos Plaza.

A Long Beard Kachina from the Collection of the Artist Max Weber

Antique Longhair Kachina Doll

Angak’china known as the First Kachina and/or the Beautiful Kachina, commonly referred to as the Long Beard, Long Hair and even Loose Hair. 

This carving is being offered to our Two Graces collectors at $9,500.*

Longhair Kachina Verso

Hopi Kachina aka Katsina 8” tall  ca.1880-1910 red cottonwood root, clay, mineral paints, feathers and cotton string

Longhair Kachina Hanging on wall

The height of eight inches, is a standard size, it has a very large presence whether you have a collection of several Kachina Dolls or only this one, it is a knockout. A true American Folk Art carving, simple and well made this antique Kachina Doll will bring lasting joy to any collection.

Historic Photograph of Longhair Kachina Ceremonial Dancers

Referred to as a Volz style kachina doll carving from the time frame of 1870-1910. The trading post of Frederick Volz was located at Canyon Diablo near the First Mesa of the Hopi Villages. A large collection of these dolls were acquired by the Fred Harvey Company in 1901. Among these dolls there is a ‘dance motion’ created by the carver which this doll truly appears to have.

The deep green pigment of the face indicates an early carving, the later usage of a blue color (using a fugitive ground flora material) often fades to a soft warm grey. 

The Angak’china’s purpose is to bring rain, it is a common occurrence that during their dancing that rain will begin to fall. This of course may be due to when they dance which is typically during monsoon season. The long-beard is also seen at other Pueblo villages and is a popular entity at Zuni Pueblo. During a 1990 visit with several friends to Zuni a Kachina dance was about to take place, over fifty Longbeards along with 50 Mudhead Koyemsi Kachina figures came out into the Zuni Plaza and began to dance in the rain. I foolishly asked if the dance would take place due to the rain. Told that the point of the dance was for there to be rain, (I tend to not ask such questions any longer). The ‘singing’ (which sounded like a low hum) is meant to bring positive messages of Life to the Pueblo people.

Historic Mask of a LongHair Kachina

A Thorough Condition Report 

The loose hair represents gently falling rain, the row of various squares of colors across the lower portion of the mask representing a rainbow. The top portion of the head at the hairline is quite worn and chipped, oxidation of the cottonwood shows this to be quite old damage. Remnants of feathers, cloth(?) and string protrude from the top of the head.

Over the missing black hair fringe (Sokum’kalmungwa) there would have been soft white eagle feathers hanging from the three knots of the string at the lower portion of the face mask. Where the beard once was the paint is very much worn from the abrasiveness of the horsehair rubbing against it. 

Overall the face mask (maskette) is painted a green known as Sakwa, usually a copper carbonite minerał paint, or a terre verde, chromium oxide, malachite. Other theories reference the mixing of a yellow ochre pigment with an indigo. Green (not blue) of the masquette is referenced in the Smithsonian publication of 1899/1900 Twenty-First Annual Report.

A cotton string was attached around the neck to facilitate hanging the doll in a Hopi home. The string and entire body of the doll was then painted over with the traditional tuma, white clay used as a wash or ‘primer’. The string at some point broke away but in the front is still embedded in the clay wash. An eye hook was put into place in order to hang the doll, probably by Max Weber.  A fresh length of cotton string has been tied in place, anyone acquiring this carving may of course remove the eye hook, however a professional restorer should be consulted.

The tuma filler at the underarm areas has worn away, but each arm is firmly attached. There is an indication of old rabbit skin glue (rabbit skin glue has a telltale brown look to it) in the armpit of the right arm. The left forearm is missing, this is an old break from being played with by the original child owner. The complete right arm slopes gently to an early version of a hand, which is sans any indication of wrist or fingers. Breakage and lost arms is common among all kachina dolls, examples of early dolls will more than likely have missing parts. If a new owner chooses to have the forearm restored this can be done by a **professional restoration person. Personally I have chosen to leave it as is.

The painted zigzag or rick-rack sash at the waist is crisp with a continuous lyrical flow to it. At the right side of the kilt the classic woven design with cloud symbols has similarities to other dolls made during the time frame of 1880-1920. The kilt itself is asymmetrical, (this was pointed out to me by the only other person we’ve shown the doll to).

Which brings us to the legs, using an ochre pigment over a black coal pigment, they are painted in a delightful way with two stripes at opposing angles on each upper portion of the leg. The left foot, although not noticeable from looking at the top of it, was broken (four breaks) around when the doll was being played with. The pieces were recovered and more than likely put back into place by either the maker or family member for the child. The right foot has a hairline crack and too was repaired around the time of its origin. As any well made Hopi Kachina should, it stands solidly on it’s own. 

New information has come forward that the doll is carved of Red Cottonwood root, the red cottonwood tree once grew along the Colorado River and was the primary source for carvings until the source was over harvested. White cottonwood is what carvers switched to.

Provenance

From the estate of Joy Weber (1927-2016) Santa Fe resident, handed down to her from her father the artist Max Weber (1881-1961). 

Portrait of Max Weber

Weber was known for having brought the styles of Cubism and Fauvism to the United States. After attending the Pratt Institute of Art in Brookly, NY, in 1905 Weber went to Paris, where he continued his  studies at the ateliers of the Académie Julian, the Académie Colarossi, and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. His early mentors, teachers and friends included Arthur Wesley Dow, Henri Matisse, Henri Rousseau, Guilliame Apollinaire, Pablo Picasso & Robert Delaunay. The ethnographic collections he saw in Europe were an influence on him as they were for many of the artists of the period. Ethnographic works were so influential on the artists in the early to mid-1900's that the Museum of Modern Art presented an entire exhibition of the artworks they inspired alongside the original material. The two volume publication for this exhibit is a vast resource, 'Primitivism in 20th Century Art, Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern' William Rubin 1984.

From 1909-1911 he became a part of the Alfred Stieglitz circle of artists exhibiting at Gallery 291. He exhibited at the Society of Independent Artists, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Jewish Museum. During the early 1920’s at the Art Students League in New York, Weber taught art classes to a prestigious ‘who’s who’ of student artists.

'Chinese Planter with Green Leaves' 1907 Max Weber

Note the Santo Domingo Pueblo style pitcher at right

'Mexican Statuette' 1910 Max Weber

Note the figure identified as Mexican is actually from Cochiti Pueblo

While in Paris, Gertrude Stein is known to have purchased a Weber painting. Weber’s Taos connection is to the Grande Dame herself, the ever influential Mabel Dodge Luhan who purchased three of his paintings in NYC. Many years later one of these paintings was included in the 2017 exhibition at the Harwood Museum  “Mabel Dodge Luhan and Company: American Moderns and the West”. His connections to Andrew Dasburg, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz, and Mabel Dodge Luhan put him in the realm of what some consider the Taos circle of artists, although it is thought that he turned down an invitation to visit Taos by Mabel and was not directly involved with any of the Taos groups he was very much aware of them. It would be best to consider him in ‘The Circle of Stieglitz’. The writings of Weber are thought to have influenced Georgia O'Keeffe in her abstract 'Infinity' studies.

Examples of Southwestern Pueblo Pottery are in a few of Weber’s still life paintings.

How, where and why Weber would have collected this particular Kachina doll is somewhat baffling until you begin to understand his deep spirituality and delve into his writing “Essays on Art” 1916. 

'in situ' the Kachina hanging on the wall by the cabinet of crystal in the home of Joy Weber

The collections (in particular the Cabinet of Curiosity style collections) in Europe particularly in Paris along with Museums across Europe were known to include Kachina Doll carvings. The cubist artists in particular, greatly admired carvings by the Hopi & Zuni people of the Southwestern United States.

The Photograph is of Max Weber in his studio, at top right there is a portion of what appears to be a Kachina Doll.

The size of this piece can be compared to the size of the light switch cover below it. I've added the comparison of the Weber Estate Kachina Doll as it was from the estate sale website after expanding it. Either image could be almost anything but in the case of the estate image I went with my gut and asked for a better photograph. In the case of the piece in the studio photograph we will never know if there was another Kachina doll or more in Weber's collection.

To see a thing is to see its inherent spirit… To see an artwork casually or en passant, is a very pleasant experience; but to come in touch with the vision, the spirit of its maker, is seeing in participation, and then it is not a gratification but an exaltation.

Max Weber for Photographic Art, 1916

*Due to the Provenance, Age and Condition of this carving we believe the price point to be below current value.

** Professional Restoration, means just that, this is not a do-it-yourself project. I have been restoring Kachina Doll carvings and other historic wooden items since 1981.

An example of a longhair kachina from the November 2024 Paris Auction at Qiquelo 'Les Kachinas de Leo Scheer'

(in US dollars this comes to just under $13,000.)

This carving sold through Sotheby's 2 years earlier at $10,700, in 2023

Same height of 8" tall, (no further information was given)

The carving at left, missing both forearms and it's left foot is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum

It is 6 3/16" tall, dated 1868-1900

The carving at right is the Kachina Doll we are offering from the estate of Max Weber

'The Fisherman' 1919 Max Weber

(note the right arm and left hand grasping a pole, they are extremely similar to the hands and arms of Kachina doll carvings)

‘THE FOURTH DIMENSION FROM A PLASTIC POINT OF VIEW’ 

In plastic art I believe, there is a fourth dimension which may be described as the consciousness of a great and overwhelming sense of space - magnitude in all directions at one time, and is brought into existence through the three known measurements. It is not a physical entity or a mathematical hypothesis, nor an optical illusion. It is real, and can be perceived and felt. It exists outside and in the presence of objects, and is the space that envelops a tree, a tower, a mountain, or any solid; or the intervals between objects or volumes of matter if receptively beheld. It is somewhat similar to color and depth in musical sounds. It arouses imagination and stirs emotion. It is the immensity of all things. It is the ideal measurement, and is therefore as great as the ideal, perceptive or imaginative faculties of the creator, architect, sculptor, or painter. Two objects may be of like measurements, yet not appear to be of the same size, not because of some optical illusion, but because of a greater or lesser perception of this so-called fourth dimension, the dimension of infinity. Archaic and the best of Assyrian, Egyptian, or Greek sculpture, as well as paintings by El Greço and Cézanne and other masters, are splendid examples A Tanagra, Egyptian, or Congo of plastic art possessing this rape sualtof a Canagra, Fee, anile ongo, mediocre piece of sculpture appears to be of the size of a pin-head, for it is devoid of this boundless sense of space or grandeur. The same is true of painting and other flat-space arts. A form at its extremity still continues reaching out into space if it is imbued with intensity or energy. The ideal dimension is dependent for its existence upon the three material dimensions, and is created entirely through plastic means, colored and constructed matter in space and light. Life and its visions can only be realized and made possible through matter. The ideal is thus embodied in, and revealed through the real. Matter is the beginning of existence; and life or being creates or causes the ideal. Cézanne's or Giotto's achievements are most real and plastic and therefore are they so rare and distinguished. The ideal or visionary is impossible without form; even angels come down to earth. By walking upon earth and looking up at the heavens, and in no other way, can there be an equilibrium. The greatest dream or vision is that which is re-given plastically through observation of things in nature. "Pour les progrès à réaliser il n'y a que la nature, et l'œil s'éduque à son contact." (*For progress to be made there is only nature, and the eye is educated through contact with it). Space is empty, from a plastic point of view. The stronger or more forceful the form the more intense is the dream or vision. Only real dreams are built upon. Even thought is matter. It is all the matter of things, real things or earth or matter. Dreams realized through plastic means are the pyramids and temples, the Acropolis and the Palatine structures; cathedrals and decorations; tunnels, bridges, and towers; these are all of matter in space-both in one and inseparable. 

Max Weber for Camera Work 1916

The treasure hunt of finding such a magnificent Hopi Kachina Doll has been thrilling

Hopi Kachina, Coyote Claw (Long Beard Kachina drawing study for painting) 1934 Emil Bisttram

The need to explore primitive and American Indian art by Abstract Expressionist painters during the 1940s is well documented. Less known is the interest in American Indian art manifested by earlier painters such as Max Weber, Marsden Hartley, and John Sloan. Their interest has been overlooked because such art was not central to the formulation of their styles, nor did they write about it with the degree of urgency exhibited during the 1940s. In fact, except for a few words about Hopi katchinas mentioned by Max Weber in 1910, American Indian art did not receive serious attention until about 1920. Nevertheless, attitudes concerning primitive art, and values found therein, provide us with important insights into the artistic motivations of the early modernists. 

Modem Uses of American Indian Art Matthew Baigell 1976