GENE KLOSS
There are so many aspects to the artist and this show that makes your visit an essential one. Consider that many of the etchings were literally drawn from Kloss’ legendary photographic memory. As she and her husband, Phillips, became acquainted with Taos, they likewise became engrossed with the ethnology of both the local Native American and Hispanic populations. Their respect for cultural and religious traditions was absolute, and the artist refrained from sketching the many ceremonies they were invited to witness; instead, Kloss worked from recollections.
Of her process, Kloss wrote, “The method I came [to] use to enable memory to compose etchings was to note details of costume, focus on two or three notes [sic] of the dance that was repeated and directly upon leaving the pueblo to make quick sketches[.] Next day I developed the drawings to completion which it was all fresh. Black and white of etchings is an abstraction of the dances.” (Taken from a 1989 letter from Kloss to R. H. Dick.)
Kloss was also a prolific producer, with an estimated 18,000 numbered copies of her 600 lifetime prints. Phillips Kloss had even lugged her beloved 60-pound etching press along with them on their 1925 honeymoon when they first came to Taos. After their first two weeks here she later noted, “I was a New Mexican from then on.” In 1960, the couple permanently relocated to Taos and she continued to make her extraordinary art through the late 1980s. In fact, this exhibit is fortunate to have both a print from her years as an art major at University of California, Berkeley, in the 1920s, as well as her last known print made as a Taoseña. Her reputation as an artist grew with exhibitions in Berkeley and Carmel;
New York’s Museum of Modern Art; and the Harwood Museum of Art and the University of New Mexico. She was an elected Associate of the National Academy of Design, and was the sole etcher employed by the W.P.A. Public Works of Art program. Nevertheless, Kloss eschewed exorbitant compensation. “She wanted art —her art — to be accessible,” remarked Marissa Hendricks, director of the Lunder Research Center. “She refrained from just making money from what was her passion.”
Kloss was also keenly sensitive to the prejudice many female artists faced and wanted her work to be viewed without that lens. Born in 1903 as Alice Geneva Glasier, she chose to shorten her middle name to the gender-ambiguous “Gene.” (It worked: To this day there are many who still think Gene Kloss is a male artist.) “She was an artist of the people with no conscious bias,” said LRC’s Collections Manager Rachel Daley, perhaps the reason why her work remains so relevant.
Executive Director Koenig noted the generous donation of 12 Kloss prints to the exhibit from the Marilyn and Richard Shoberg family, who opted to participate in The Couse Foundation’s Estate Art Program. The program was developed with input from significant donors, TCF’s board of directors, and experts in art sales and financial planning and coordinates with donors’ legal, financial and other advisors to accomplish their personal wishes. The cache of Kloss’ correspondence was a gift to LRC archives made by the Anthony Kroll family; the artist’s copper plates on display are a loan from the Collection of Dennis and Kathy Tyree. Kloss, aged 92, passed away in Taos in 1996, less than a year after Phillips died. She left behind an exceptional body of work and, as Art News wrote, “Gene Kloss is one of our most sensitive and sympathetic interpreters of the
Southwest.”
“Etched in Memory: Gene Kloss’ Taos” is available for viewing Tuesdays through Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free and all are welcome.
The Couse-Sharp Historic Site and Lunder Research Center are located at 138 and 146 Kit Carson Road, Taos. For more information, call 575-7510369 or visit couse-sharp.org.