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Susan Folwell (Santa Clara)
The Taos Society of Artists became acclaimed in part for their depictions of Taos Pueblo’s Indigenous residents. In recent years, Susan Folwell (Santa Clara), a potter and painter whose roots run deep in New Mexico’s Indigenous arts community, has returned her gaze upon these non-native artists who so regularly fixed their gaze upon Indigenous people.
Folwell’s latest exploration of this theme can be seen at King Galleries in Santa Fe during Susan Folwell : Water : Vessel — New works in Clay, July 9 through 23. In the exhibition, Folwell will debut new pottery in canteen and water jar shapes with painted imagery inspired by the Taos Society of
Artists. Her interest in the TSA didn’t feature in her work until her husband, Davison Packard Koenig, was hired as executive director and curator for the Couse Foundation in 2016. As a result, they relocated to Taos and she reconnected with the TSA.
“It was like putting myself back through art school in a way,” Folwell explains. “Studying really masterful works with the subject matter [being] something that I’m familiar with, something that touches my heart.”
The Taos Society of Artists, which existed between 1915 to 1927, established positive working relationships with their Native subjects. Theirs wasn’t simply a transactional arrangement between model and artist.
Lasting bonds between the painters and members of the pueblo were formed.
Folwell sees evidence of this in TSA paintings. “The humanity that’s brought to Native peoples,” Folwell admires. “It might be kind of romanticized, but to have [Native people] in an everyday situation and portrayed elegantly and beautifully in their everyday lives.”