Author: taosnews

staff report

What’s the greatest invention from the 20th century? Personal computers, cellphone, digital cameras, GPS, and Google might spring to mind, but for some of us, few innovations beat the joys of buckled ski boots and step-in bindings.

Skiing has come a long way from soggy, double-laced leather boots and bear-trap ski bindings. Before Hannes Marker pioneered releasable bindings, spectacular injuries were not uncommon — or as Bob Hoye said in the story “Skiing for 70 years,” “I knew a guy who suffered a spiral tib, fib and femur. All on one leg and in one crash.”

Skiing gear has definitely evolved, and while no one can control the risks a skier might take, at least the equipment makes the sport safer.

The same goes for skier transport. Remember rope tows? Poma lifts? T-bars? The first chairlift, designed by Union Pacific engineer Jim Curran for the 1936 opening of Idaho’s Sun Valley, must have seemed like a godsend for skiing — and it was.

Take the following excerpt from Taos Ski Valley’s history, “In 1957 a Poma [platter] lift went up Al’s Run [one of the steepest ski runs going]. … The lift pulled passengers along the ground at twice the speed of a modern lift. … Small people were lifted completely off the ground in certain spots and hung spinning in the air.”

Today’s skiers are treated to faster, more comfortable chairlifts and high speed detachable quad (four-person) chairlifts that eliminate long lines and “chair bang” — that bruise on the back of your legs you get from being hit hard from behind by a fast-moving chair.

And grooming? A few die-hards may long for the days when skiing required skill to navigate through icy ruts, giant moguls and huge holes, or sitzmarks, left behind by less skilled skiers. Maybe a few miss seeing numerous bamboo poles with flags dotting the slopes, a warning to skiers bare spots are ahead.

The rest of us are grateful for mountainwide snowmaking and grooming machines that leave a fluffy “corduroy surface” — perfect for cruising.

Ask any old timer, they’ll tell you: Skiing just keeps getting better and better!

Museums showcase unique works this winter and spring

Staff report

Every museum in Taos is a showcase, every day. Visitors have only to decide how to plan their days. Several of these curators of Northern New Mexico arts and culture also frequently plan special exhibitions showcasing unique perspectives. Some will be gone soon. Plan accordingly.

“The Story of Us”

The Art of Richard Alan Nichols: A Thirty-Year Retrospective

Where: Taos Art Museum at Fechin House

Last day: December 29, 2024

While studying at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Richard Alan Nichols learned about the Taos Society of Artists, which led him to his first visit to Taos in 1990. He was led to paint the sights of the area, and in 1994, he and his wife Deb relocated to Taos. With “The Story of Us,” Nichols is allowing himself to reflect on his life’s work and the impact it has had. “I chose paintings that all represent something special — that reflected my painting life, my emotional life — they all have a story.”

“Luchita Hurtado: Earth & Sky Interjected”

Where: Harwood Museum of Art

Last day: Feb 23, 2025

When Los Angeles-based artist and former part-time Taos resident Luchita Hurtado died in 2020 at the age of 99, few were aware of the remarkable life she lived as an artist and environmental activist. Born in Venezuela in 1920, Hurtado attended classes at the Art Students League New York, then lived in Mexico City, the San Francisco Bay area, and Santa Monica. During the 1970s, Hurtado began spending a significant amount of time in Taos, where she and her third husband, fellow artist Lee Mullican, built their second home.

Hurtado’s work continued to evolve throughout the 1960s and ’70s, leading to contemplative self-portraits known as her “I Am” paintings. This series was followed by a group of surrealist “Body Landscapes” — the human figure assumes the form of mountains and desert sand dunes — and her late-1970s “Sky Skin” series — feathers weightlessly float in bright blue skies. Works from this period were informed by Hurtado’s feminist ideals and involvement with the Los Angeles Council of Women Artists, which hosted Hurtado’s first solo exhibition in 1974.

Up to the last days of her life, Hurtado continued to make work that pushed the boundaries of her practice through numerous drawings and paintings related to nature.

“Channeling Luchita: A Community Response to the Life and Work of Luchita Hurtado”

Where: Millicent Rogers Museum

Last day: Feb 2, 2025

Millicent Rogers Museum (MRM), with the Taos Abstract Artist Collective (TAAC) is displaying “Channeling Luchita: A Community Response to the Life and Work of Luchita Hurtado,” a collaborative exhibition and curatorial response. Curated by Claire Motsinger, Deborah McLean, and TAAC artists Bob Parker and Jill Kamas, this exhibition presents 10 New Mexico artists whose styles and conceptual practices respond to the themes conjured in Hurtado’s artistic body of work: Audra Elizabeth Knutson, Dean Pulver, Josh Tafoya, Lynnette Haozous, Margaret R. Thompson, Maye Torres, Olive Tyrrell, Rick Romancito and Tse Tsan.

MRM’s other winter and spring exhibitions:

• 28th Annual Miniatures Show & Sale, Feb. 8–March 9, 2025. This popular annual event includes hundreds of works, paintings, prints, sculpture, jewelry and more from Taos, Rio Arriba and Colfax counties.
• Taos Pueblo Winter Arts Show, March 15–16 (date subject to change). Free admission to view and buy works by dozens of Taos Pueblo artists. Performances and Pueblo-made food help make this annual event even more wonderful.
• National Pastels Society Show & Sale, March 22–June 1, 2025. This juried exhibit showcases award-winning pastel works from some of the country’s finest pastel artists.

“Forsaken Objects and Untold Stories”

Photographs by Zoë Zimmerman

Where: Taos Art Museum at Fechin House

Last day: March 30, 2025

A little over two years ago, Christy Coleman, executive director at the Taos Art Museum at Fechin House, noticed a box of dust-covered, interesting looking bottles in the basement of the Fechin House. Her discovery culminated in the unique exhibit “Forsaken Objects and Untold Stories” a 42-photographic exhibit of personal items once owned and used by Nicolai Fechin and his wife Alexandra, and photographed by artist Zoë Zimmerman.

“I showed Zoë everything in the basement and I could immediately tell that, like me, she saw something special in the remnants from the Fechins’ lives,” Coleman said.

The boxes were packed with leftovers from the Fechins’ personal lives — discarded tube of Nicolai Fechin’s signature cobalt blue paint and Alexandra Fechin’s bottles of facial cleansers and hand cream.

“Initially it was exciting, like finding something in someone’s attic,” Zimmerman said. “I really thought … it would be good for me to try and take pictures that were just about composition and color and light … I can’t do anything visual unless there is an emotional backstory and I had to make emotional sense of it.”

Coleman matched Fechin’s portraits and Zimmerman’s photographs — a portrait of Alexandra with a photograph of her lipstick — and the rare, respectful and emotion-provoking exhibit is on display throughout both floors of the Fechin House.

“Nicholas Herrera: El Rito Santero”

Where: Harwood Museum of Art

Last day: June 1, 2025

Nicholas Herrera, known as the saint maker of El Rito, has carved out a life that straddles the sacred and the profane.

“I’ve been a santero since when I was a young kid,” Herrera told Laura Martin Baseman during a “Voices of Taos” podcast interview. “One of my great uncles was Santero de la Muerte [José Inéz Herrera].”

Herrera said he was inspired when he saw photos of his uncle’s works at the Denver Art Museum. “Right away, I was like: Man, now I know why I’d like to carve. I think it’s in my blood. Yeah. And so I started carving. … I learned mostly on my own. I cut my fingers a lot, but … I was always carving.”

Rebellious and reckless, Herrera’s life seemed destined for destruction. All that changed in 1990: At the age of 26, a serious car accident left Herrera in a coma, teetering on the edge of life and death. He experienced a vision of a death figure, a carved specter created by his great-uncle José Inés Herrera, standing at the end of a tunnel of light. When he awoke, the transformation began. Herrera felt compelled to leave behind the chaos of his past and dedicate himself to his craft.

As a modern santero, Herrera creates bultos (carved wooden figures), retablos (painted wooden panels), and large-scale mixed media works, each one a chapter in the rich, and often challenging, narrative of his life.

“Charles Ross: Mansions of the Zodiac”

Where: Taos Art Museum at Fechin House

March 15–Sept. 7, 2025

“Charles Ross: Mansions of the Zodiac” is a planned exhibition of Ross’s artwork, inspired by sunlight, starlight, time, and planetary motion. Ross emerged in the 1960s and is considered one of the preeminent figures of land art. This exhibition is opening as Ross nears the completion of his earth/sky work,” Star Axis,” a monumental architectonic sculpture, and naked eye observatory located on the eastern plains of New Mexico. It will give us a glance at his art and art making in New Mexico, a place that is elemental to his life and work.

Taos Historic Museums

Harwood Museum of Art

Harwood Museum is considered the second-oldest art museum in the state and houses an impressive array of Spanish Colonial and Hispanic relics as well as works from the many waves of artists who have found their muse in the Taos Valley.

238 Ledoux St, Taos | 575-758-9826

harwoodmuseum.org

E.L Blumenschein Home & Museum

Next door, the E.L Blumenschein Home & Museum is a living museum and shrine to Ernest and Mary Blumenschein’s legacy.

222 Ledoux St, Taos | 575-758-0505

taoshistoricmuseums.org

Hacienda de los Martinez, a living museum on the outskirts of town, is a Spanish Colonial-style fortress-like home (now on the National Register of Historic Places) that became an important center of commerce for traders.

Hacienda de los Martinez

708 Hacienda Road, Taos | 575-758-1000

taoshistoricmuseums.org

Kit Carson House & Museum

Kit Carson House near the plaza is a prime example of vernacular New Mexico adobe architecture that gives us a better understanding of how people lived in the 19th century. Restoration, at an estimated cost of $3 million, will stabilize and rehabilitate this 200-year-old historic adobe structure.

113 Kit Carson Road, Taos | 575-758-4945

kitcarsonhouse.org

Couse-Sharp Historic Site

Couse-Sharp Historic Site features the former homes and studios of E. I. Couse and J. H. Sharp, two of the American-born, European-trained artists who formed the Taos Society of Artists in 1915.

146 Kit Carson Road, Taos | 575-751-0369

couse-sharp.org

Governor Bent House & Museum

Governor Charles Bent House & Museum, across from the John Dunn Shops, provides a small glimpse into a violent chapter in Taos’ history.

117A Bent St Taos

taos.org/places/governor-bents-house-and-museum

Taos Art Museum at Fechin House

The Fechin House that now houses Taos Art Museum was once home to the Russian artist Nicolai Fechin. Today, the beautifully restored adobe building is a museum dedicated to Fechin’s life and work. The museum’s collection includes Fechin’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures, as well as works by other Taos artists.

227 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Taos | 575-758-2690

taosartmuseum.org

Millicent Rogers Museum

Millicent Rogers Museum houses an impressive and priceless collection of Native American art and jewelry, Hispanic textiles, and Spanish colonial art.

1504 Millicent Rogers Road, El Prado | 575-758-2462

millicentrogers.org

A guide to current and past people of note.

Staff report

The multicultural, contemporary Taos we know today dates back to August 29, 1540 when Capitan Hernando Alvarado arrived in the Taos Valley for the first time. Today, three cultures exist side by side, and Taos’ history is dotted with so many illustrious names.

Here are a few highlights:

Ernie Blake

Taos Ski Valley Inc.’s founder was inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1987 and the New Mexico Ski Hall of Fame in 2003. The Blake family left Nazi Germany in 1938, but Ernie later returned to Germany to help in the Allied war effort working for both British Intelligence and in Gen. Patton’s Third Army. Later, it was while flying between the ski areas he ran in Santa Fe and Glenwood Springs, Colorado, that Ernie first spotted the snow-covered slopes that led to TSV’s founding in 1956. Ernie, 75, died in 1989 of pneumonia.

John Nichols

John Nichols had already tasted fame before coming to Taos in 1969. His novel, “The Sterile Cuckoo” (1965), was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Liza Minnelli in 1969. His seminal novel, “The Milagro Beanfield War,” was written here, and in a sense, it remains the quintessential Northern New Mexican novel (albeit by a gringo.) He wrote the New Mexico Trilogy — “The Milagro Beanfield War” (1974), “The Magic Journey” (1978), and “The Nirvana Blues” (1981) — as well as numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction. Nichols died in 2023.

Padre Antonio José Martínez

Padre Antonio José Martínez — Jan. 16, 1793–July 27, 1867 — was the very famous pastor at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish for over 30 years and was a pivotal political, spiritual and cultural influence during the transition of power from Mexican to U.S. governance in the mid-1800s. As a result of his activism, he was famously excommunicated by Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy.

Kit Carson

Whatever one feels about his legacy, Christopher “Kit” Carson left his mark in Northern New Mexico: The Kit Carson Home & Museum is an intriguing stop on any history aficionado’s tour in Taos, and Kit Carson Park is named for the famed explorer, scout, trapper, Indian agent, rancher, and soldier. He traversed and scouted the Santa Fe Trail, fought Confederate troops in New Mexico during the Civil War and battled to secure California for his country in the Mexican-American War. But Carson’s role in rounding up the Navajo in the 1860s — which led to their forced “Long Walk” — damaged his legacy as a “frontier hero.”

Marcelino Baca

Baca was a Taos native and a fur trader who helped establish the Southwest fur trade. Taos’ establishment as a major trade center put the town on the map long before the arts did. Baca settled down with his family in 1854 in what is now Red River; then it was Río Colorado. He died in the Civil War as one of the New Mexico Volunteers in a battle with invading Texans on Feb. 21, 1862.

Dennis Hopper

When Dennis Hopper passed away in May 2010, just a couple of weeks after his 74th birthday, American pop culture lost one of its greatest iconoclastic figureheads, and Taos lost one of its most colorful residents. Over the years, Hopper’s life and times became entwined with Taos. It is where he shot portions of his phenomenally successful hippie-biker film “Easy Rider” and lived on and off ever since. Hopper bought the Mabel Dodge Luhan house and dubbed it “The Mud Palace,” threw some star-studded parties and was buried in nearby Talpa after he died.

Gary Johnson

The erstwhile Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico governor has a home only a short drive from Taos Ski Valley. It makes sense. He is an avid skier, cyclist and all-around athlete.

Donald Rumsfeld

The late Defense Secretary under President George W. Bush lived in Taos part-time and had been spotted with his grandkids at a July 4 parade. Demonstrations erupted at his property during the Iraq War, but he remained unruffled. He told Gentleman’s Quarterly in 2007, “I have nothing to apologize for.” On June 29, 2021, Rumsfeld died at his home in Taos.

Dean Stockwell

The late actor and artist appeared in about 100 films since 1945 and acted on the small screen even more often, including the 1990’s hit “Quantum Leap.” Unlike many of the celebs Hopper lured here, Stockwell stayed. An accomplished artist, he created “surreal, digitally enhanced collages” and brightly colored dice sculptures. In 2021 he died of natural causes in New Zealand, where his daughter lived.

R.C. Gorman

The New York Times called him “the Picasso of American Indian artists.” From the late 1960s to his death in 2005, Rudolph Carl Gorman lived in his compound visible from State Road 522 and exhibited his richly colored images of over-sized, impressionistic Native women.

Larry Bell

A resident of Taos since 1973, Bell is probably best-known for his 3D glass cubes. He told Trend magazine in 2014: “I’m a party guy,” Bell says, with a boyish grin. “… In Taos, there is much less temptation.” His work graces the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and just about every major museum throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Aldous Huxley

The British author of “Brave New World” reportedly wrote his collection of essays “Means and Ends” in 1937 while staying at the homestead that is now the Taos Goji Farm & Eco-Lodge. The lore: Huxley once ran into the outhouse in fear of a dog. The philosopher and futurist was trapped in there for three hours.

Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron

To those who have tried to tap into their inner writer or artist, these women are household names and former Taos residents. They both have since emigrated to Santa Fe. Between them, they wrote dozens of books. “Writing Down the Bones” and “The Artist’s Way,” respectively, are their most popular works.

Mike Reynolds

The documentary on this man’s life is called “The Garbage Warrior” and, indeed, his Earthship community northwest of town is a monument to the idea that one can live off-grid and use recycled materials to build comfortable, self-sustaining, attractive, artistic, and downright cozy homes.

Agnes Martin

Martin first came to New Mexico when she was a young woman. Some of her large, minimalist paintings hang in the Harwood Museum here. The world-renowned artist moved to New Mexico in 1967, and in the end, came back to Taos in 1993 and lived here until her death in 2004.

Dave Hahn

You could say he’s a Taos Ski Valley patroller, and that would be correct. But it would sort of miss the point. The man has scaled Mount Everest 15 times. He even guided former Gov. Gary Johnson to the summit of Everest and Mt. Vinson in Antarctica

Andrew Dasburg

An American modernist painter and “one of America’s leading early exponents of cubism,” Andrew Dasburg will forever be recognized in 20th century American art history as one who heroically carried on the battle for modernism, primarily in New York in the early years of the 20th century. He will also be remembered as an artist of great versatility who brought new interpretations to the New Mexico landscape that are distinctive and lasting. He died in Taos at age 92 in 1979.

Robert Mirabal

The locals think of Mirabal as a farmer, flute maker, a good dad — and, oh yes, a Grammy Award-winning musician who played Carnegie Hall last year. Taos Pueblo-born, Mirabal won the 2008 Native American Album of the Year. He plays locally quite often, and if you are lucky, you might catch one of these remarkable performances.

Mabel Dodge Luhan

Arts patron, salon hostess, writer and prominent Taoseña, Mabel Dodge Luhan is celebrated for her role in building artistic communities, supporting artists and generating interest in modern art forms. After building a four-room adobe, which eventually had 17 rooms, she entertained painters, sculptors and photographers John Marin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Ansel Adams and Laura Gilpin; dance choreographer Martha Graham; anthropologists John Collier and Elsie Clews Parsons; and writers Willa Cather, Aldous Huxley, and D. H. Lawrence. She is buried in Kit Carson Memorial Cemetery.

Millicent Rogers

Heiress, socialite, fashion icon, jewelry designer, and art collector, Rogers designed modern jewelry pieces that she eventually had made (or made herself at her own bench). She was very passionate about both the Hispanic and Native American communities in New Mexico and played a quiet but instrumental role in securing Blue Lake for Taos Pueblo. Her Taos legacy remains in the museum that bears her name.

Dorothy Brett

In 1924, Brett moved to the D. H. Lawrence Ranch near Taos with Lawrence and his wife Frieda. She settled permanently in Taos and became a U.S. citizen in 1938. In the 100 years since her arrival, her images have become iconic representations of the people and landscape of Taos.

From adobes to Earthships, Taos Architecture is full of surprises

By Craig Smith

Continue reading “Creative Constructs”