Original Black Line Drawing of Angel and Monk [SOLD]

Known for breaking down natural shapes into geometric patterns of line and color, Kenneth Adams became the last and youngest member of the Taos Society of Artists. In contrast to the other members, whose work was grounded in late 19th-Century academic principles, he was a contemporary realist, deeply influenced by Cubist experiments of the French artist, Cezanne, and American modernist, Andrew Dasburg. Adams was a key figure in New Mexico art circles and bridged the "old guard" artists and new arrivals.

Technically conservative, Adams was nevertheless concerned with the daily lives of his agrarian neighbors. In 1929, Adams began teaching at the University of New Mexico in Taos. The dominant subjects in his work became the Spanish Americans and landscapes.

In 1938, he moved to Albuquerque because he was awarded a Carnegie Corporation Grant to become the first artist-in-residence at the University of New Mexico. He taught there for the next twenty-five years until 1963, becoming a full professor. In 1938, he had been elected an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design in New York and a full member in 1961.

Adams' cubist style is fully illustrated in this drawing. One can see the sharp lines of what is probably a Penitente Monk against the curved forms of the Angel. Adams was probably influenced by what he witnessed of the Penitente cult in northern New Mexico while he was living in Taos.  The Penitente were influential in the small northern New Mexico towns populated by Hispanics.

Condition: appears to be in original condition

Recommended Reading: Taos Moderns: Art of the New by David Witt

Provenance: from a family collection in Oklahoma