JOHN MARIN IN NEW MEXICO [SOLD]

JOHN MARIN IN NEW MEXICO

The Albuquerque Museum May 16 - August 22, 1999

Soft cover, 64 pages, 47 color plates of Marin’s paintings.

“Summer 1930: John Marin, America’s most celebrated watercolorist, wades into the swift currents of the Rio Hondo in Northern New Mexico.  Fly rod in hand, eyes searching for trout beneath the flickering surface of the stream, Marin is a study in concentration. . . .

“When Marin was not wading into trout streams, he painted them, switching easily from one pursuit to the other.  The canyon of the Hondo, a longtime favorite painting site for members of the Taos Art Colony, was one of several dozen places where Marin painted in the productive summers of 1929 and 1930, turning out some 100 watercolors.  To his dealer, Alfred Stieglitz, he reported on his twin summer pursuits: ‘The batch is growing, quite a batch in quantity. In between time I go trout fishing.”

John Marin is considered the greatest American watercolor artist of the twentieth century. He is well-known for his landscapes of Maine and New York City, but his focus changed dramatically when he discovered the mountains and deserts of the Southwest.

Marin arrived in New Mexico in 1929. He spent two summers at the Mabel Dodge Luhan house in Taos, where famed artist Georgia O'Keeffe encouraged him to capture on paper the parched, rugged landscape of New Mexico. Marin took her advice and completed approximately 70 watercolors during his 7-month stay in the Land of Enchantment. His New Mexico landscapes show the distinctive browns and greens of the region, the sense of intense heat on the dry earth and incredible blue skies. Marin said the sheer scale of the New Mexico landscape impressed and sometimes intimidated him. The Albuquerque Museum