Biography from Altermann Galleries and Auctioneers, Santa Fe I:
| Taos realist figure and landscape painter, muralist, lithographer, teacher
At 16, Adams studied with G.M. Stone in Topeka, then entered the AIC in
1916. After serving in the Army as a private in World War I, he
studied at the ASL beginning 1919, the pupil of K H Miller, Bridgman,
Sterne, and Speicher. Summers were with Dasburg in
Woodstock. From 1921 to 1923, Adams studied in France and Italy,
painting landscapes he exhibited in Topeka.
In 1924, Adams followed Dasburg’s advice, settling in Taos with an
introduction to Ufer. He became the youngest and last member of
the Taos Society of Artists, but he was more than a duplicate of the
original members’ emphasis on the romantic Indian. Adams was
contemporary realist, influenced by Dasburg and working in the
tradition of Rivera and Orozco.
Technically conservative, Adams was nevertheless concerned with the
daily lives of his agrarian neighbors. In 1929, Adams began
teaching at the U of New Mexico in Taos. The dominant subjects in his
work became the Spanish Americans and landscapes. In 1938, he moved to
Albuquerque, New Mexico, where his work by 1950 was devoted to nudes,
portraits, and still life, while his summer subjects in Taos were
flowers, the Indians and the rural Spanish Americans.
Resource: SAMUELS’ Encyclopedia of ARTISTS of THE AMERICAN WEST, Peggy and Harold Samuels, 1985, Castle Publishing
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Biography from AskART:
| 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.
He was born in Topeka, Kansas and
began his studies at the age of sixteen with George M. Stone. He
attended the Art Institute of Chicago after serving in World War I as a
private. In 1919, he studied in New York at the Art Students
League with Kenneth Hayes Miller and with Dasburg in Woodstock, New
York.
After a period of study in France and Italy, he, having
been encouraged by Dasburg, made his way to New Mexico and quickly
became friends with Walter Ufer in Taos, where from 1926, he stayed for
thirteen years. In 1927, he was elected to The Taos Society of
Artists.
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 was also elected an Associate Member of the National Academy of
Design in New York and a full member in 1961. |
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Kenneth Adams is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Taos Pre 1940
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