Recently Acquired
The Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico, has added a work by Southwest painter Cliff Harmon to its permanent collection. The 1940s work, Guadalupe Church, was acquired through the Veritas Fund.
Harmon, who died in 2018, was born in Southern California, but lived in Taos for more than seven decades. He was associated with the Taos Moderns group of artists. He was quite prolific while in the Southwest and today his works can be found in many museums and great collections.
Prior to becoming an artist, Harmon helped his father run Harmon Stationery and Art Supply stores in Hollywood and Santa Monica,
California. He served as a sonarman during World War II, and later enrolled at the Bisttram School of Fine Art in Los Angeles after the end of the war. It was through the Bisttram School—named after its founder, painter Emil Bisttram—that Harmon was introduced to Taos. In 1948, Harmon moved to Taos with his wife, artist Barbara Sayre, and continued his artistic training with famed painter Louis Ribak. Later he studied with Joe Fiore and Joseph Albers.
“Cliff Harmon has deep roots in the Taos Art Colony, led here first by Emil Bisttram, founder of the Transcendental Painting Group, to study at his summer school and then with Louis Ribak at the Taos Valley Art School,” says Juniper Manley, executive director at the
Harwood. “This recently purchased work is a unique addition to the Harwood Collection both because of the style in Harmon’s work as well as the subject of the painting. While the Harwood has a handful of works by Cliff Harmon, most of them represent his geometric color theory pieces that show the Josef Albers’ influence from his studies at Black Mountain College. This piece depicts the original Guadalupe church that stood just around the corner from the Harwood Museum of Art off the Taos Plaza. One of our board members recalls it burning when she was a child. The fire was started by her friends who were playing in the bell tower.”
The work is now on view at the Harwood.