How the GI Bill shaped modern art — and found a home in Taos
By Ellen Miller-Goins
When art historian and curator MaLin Wilson-Powell curated The Albuquerque ’50s at the University of New Mexico’s Jonson Gallery in 1989, she didn’t expect it to spark a lifelong pursuit. Yet while preparing the show, she became captivated by an overlooked story: the profound impact of the GI Bill on American artists after World War II.
“I thought, ‘The GI Bill was so important — I’ll go read about it,’” she recalls. “Well, there was nothing to read. No surveys, no books. So I just started collecting material, keeping files, trying to figure out who had been on the GI Bill. This exhibition — and the book — grew from that.”
That research comes full circle in Pursuit of Happiness: GI Bill in Taos, on view at the Harwood Museum of Art through March 31, 2026. The exhibition precedes the release of Wilson-Powell’s forthcoming book, The Pursuit of Happiness: American Artists, World War II, and the GI Bill, slated from the Museum of New Mexico Press.
A legacy of art, war — and opportunity
The GI Bill — officially the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 — reshaped postwar America. It offered education, housing, and business benefits to nearly 16 million returning veterans. More than eight million used it for higher education, including the arts.
“This was the first time Americans really saw each other,” Wilson-Powell says. “Only 24 percent had graduated high school before the war, and most had never traveled more than 200 miles from where they were born. Suddenly, they were all over the world — and then, with the GI Bill, all over the country. Instead of going home to pump gas, they became veterinarians, engineers, journalists — and artists.”
Unlike WPA programs, which assigned projects, the GI Bill let veterans chart their own educational paths. That freedom fueled a generation of experimental, international, and highly mobile artists.
Taos as a nexus
While much attention has been given to New York’s postwar art scene, Pursuit of Happiness turns westward, placing Taos at the center of the story.
“Taos has always been a nexus,” Wilson-Powell explains. “Artists came to see Taos Pueblo, to study with Emil Bisttram, or to attend the Mandelman-Ribak Taos Valley Art School and the UNM Summer Field School of Art. And because of the GI Bill, many of them stayed — or came back.”
The exhibition includes works by John Chamberlain, Ad Reinhardt, Lawrence Calcagno, Richard Diebenkorn, and Oli Sihvonen, alongside Taos Pueblo artist Eva Mirabal. Mirabal, a former Women’s Army Corps member, used her GI benefits to attend art school after painting Army murals. Her sharp-witted cartoon series G.I. Gertie, lampooning military bureaucracy, is also on view.
Another highlight is Janet Lippincott, a one-time Eisenhower aide and Bisttram student who pushed Southwestern art into bold abstraction, remaining under-recognized during her lifetime.
“These are not footnotes in art history,” Wilson-Powell says. “They are the story. The GI Bill created the first generation of American artists who were truly international — and many of them passed through Taos.”
More than a show
Wilson-Powell is no stranger to the Harwood. In 2016, she curated the acclaimed Mabel Dodge Luhan & Company exhibition, transforming the museum with the help of then-development director Juniper Leherissey — now Harwood’s executive director.
“She’s been behind me all the way,” Wilson-Powell says. “When I proposed that earlier show, the then-director offered one small gallery. Juniper raised all the funds and made the whole thing happen. She’s also been instrumental in bringing this current project to life.”
For Pursuit of Happiness, Wilson-Powell drew from the Harwood’s collection as well as regional and national lenders. Works are grouped by school affiliations — Bisttram’s atelier, the Taos Valley Art School, Black Mountain College, and the California School of Fine Arts — underscoring the cross-pollination the GI Bill encouraged.
Programming includes a Sept. 27 curator’s talk and gallery guide. Sponsors range from New Mexico Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts to private donors.
A book long in the making
Wilson-Powell submitted her manuscript last year, but publication has been delayed by turnover at the Museum of New Mexico Press. She’s patient. “I just want it done right,” she says.
The book profiles 30 artists and places their stories within the arc of postwar American art. It’s the first survey of its kind.
“This is history we’ve taken for granted,” Wilson-Powell says. “We’ve all heard people say, ‘My dad went to college on the GI Bill and became a doctor.’ But what about the painters, the sculptors, the teachers?”
A call for the next generation
Though her book casts a national net, Wilson-Powell hopes others will dive deeper into New Mexico’s story.
“What I’d love,” she says, “is for someone to write a book just about GI Bill artists in New Mexico. That’s still waiting to be done.”
And her dream project? “I always imagined this as a major traveling exhibition, organized by a national museum like the Whitney or the Hirshhorn,” she says. “Something that would go coast to coast, then return home — so regional museums like the Harwood could present it with work from their own collections. What we’re doing now is a step in that direction.”
Harwood Museum of Art
238 Ledoux St, Taos | 575-758-9826
harwoodmuseum.org
Why It Matters
The GI Bill didn’t just educate a generation — it reshaped American art. By funding veterans’ studies in places like Taos, it sparked bold experimentation and drew artists from around the world to Northern New Mexico. “Pursuit of Happiness: GI Bill in Taos” reveals how this postwar policy left a lasting mark on modern art — and why Taos remains a crossroads of creativity today.