Image of the Day, March 21, 2012

While living in Chicago, Walter Ufer’s patron, Chicago mayor Carter Harrison, sent Ufer to Taos to paint the land and the indigenous people, but cautioned him not to romanticize them, but to paint them as they lived and worked in the landscape. To heighten the realism he was searching for, Ufer often painted at mid-day when the sun bleached the greasewood and sage and the only color to be found was in the bright clothing of the Pueblo Indians, and the arroyos carved by flash floods.

Walter Ufer, Untitled, oil on canvas, c. 1925. Private Collection. Photo Credit: My-West.com.©More on Walter Ufer:

Painting of the Day, November 9, 2011

Painting of the Day, November 9, 2011

By Donna Poulton

"I paint the Indian as he is. In the garden digging--in the field working--riding amongst the sage--meeting his woman in the desert--angling for trout--in meditation" (Walter Ufer, American Art Review, June, 1999).

Credit: Coeur D’Alene Auction

Walter Ufer (1876–1936), In the Garden, c.1920, oil on canvas, 30.50 x 30.50 in.

Unlike his fellow artists working in Taos in the 1920s, Walter Ufer rejected the image of Pueblo people as idealized, opting to instead to show the native culture at work with such titles as: The Washer Women, A Pueblo Well Scene and In the Garden.