Out of the Shadows
Gerald Peters Gallery showcases rare paintings from Ralph Meyers
July 27-September 29
Gerald Peters Gallery 1005 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe, NM 87501 t: (505) 954-5700 www.gpgallery.com
Ralph Waldo Emerson Meyers (1885-1948) was a close friend of Frank Waters (19021995), managing editor of the bilingual weekly Taos, New Mexico, newspaper El Crepusculo who wrote 27 books.
His iconic novel The Man Who Killed the Deer, published in 1942, sensitively chronicled the conflict of Pueblo and Anglo culture and the conflicts of values within each.waters created the character Rodolfo Byers based on his friend Meyers. He is first introduced as “that strange white man, Rodolfo Byers, their favorite trader for over thirty years.”
Meyers moved to Taos from Colorado in 1909 to work as a fire
guard. He opened The Mission Shop in Taos in 1910, which was the first Indian curio shop in town. He gained the trust of the people of the local Pueblos, moved among the circle of Mabel Dodge Luhan, as well as the artists of the Taos Society, and became recognized as an expert on Pueblo culture.as a self-taught painter he was never invited to become a member of the society although he exhibited his paintings in their 1915 exhibition.
His rare paintings will be shown in the exhibition Out of the Shadows: Ralph Meyers and the Taos Founders at Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 27 through September 29. The gallery places Meyers in the extraordinary vitality of Taos in those early days with a quote from Steve Winston’s essay, Perspective: Ralph
Meyers (1885-1948).Winston wrote, “Night after night, Meyers and his young wife, Rowena, entertained artists including Joseph Sharp,walter Ufer, Buck Dunton, Nicolai Fechin and
Ansel Adams; writers including Frank Waters and D.H. Lawrence; and arts patrons including Mabel Dodge Luhan and Millicent Rogers.the conversation was loud and animated, liquor flowed and the raucous merriment often lasted well into the wee hours.through their interactions, and most importantly, their work, these revelers were defining one of America’s most significant artistic movements. And Ralph Meyers was at the center of it all.”
Meyers learned from his association with the trained and better known Taos artists and produced small paintings that captured the literal and cultural color of the region. Paintings like Two Riders at Shiprock earned him the praise of Leon Gaspard (1882-1964) who called him “one of the finest colorists in Taos”.
His Studio of the Copper Bell is a painting of the old Luna Chapel that had been built as a family chapel by the Luna family and had been purchased by Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953) as his first studio in Taos. In addition to being a self-taught painter, Meyers learned to make
beadwork, deerskin clothing and silver jewelry and eventually employed Navajo and Taos Pueblo artisans to produce work for the tourist trade. He also reproduced Spanish-colonial furniture for large commissions—including carving the columns for Mabel Dodge Luhan’s home. It’s fitting for the exhibition at Gerald Peters Gallery to be called Out of the Shadows.among all his contributions to the cultural and social life of Taos, his paintings stand on their own.they were, perhaps, the accomplishments of which he was most proud. In 1918, on his World War I Draft Registration Card he listed his occupation as “Artist.”