ne of the best-kept secrets of the art world is that important center of postwar modernism -- Taos, New Mexico. This book on the modern artists of Taos reveals the ways in which the community became an important crossroads in modern abstract painting -- a place where the influences of Europe merged and blended with the east and west coasts of the United States.

The modern artists that lived in Taos between the mid-1940s and the early 1960s included Andrew Dasburg, Thomas Benrimo, Cady Wells, Louis Ribak, Beatrice Mandelman, Earl Stroh, Agnes Martin, Oli Sihvonen, Ted Egri, Louise Ganthiers, Clay Spohn, Edward Corbett, John DePuy, and Robert Ray. These and scores of others who visited or resided in Taos, brought to the art world a dedication to the new which has characterized modernism in art during the past hundred years.

David L. Witt, a leading scholar on the history of the Taos art community, specializes in the artists and art history of twentieth-century New Mexico. He has been curator of the University of New Mexico's Harwood Foundation since 1979. Witt is past president of the New Mexico Association of Museums and founded the Southwest Art History Council, a national professional organization.

A valuable contribution to the merger of artists, place, and time that made the Taos Moderns, this is recommended for most libraries.
--LIBRARY JOURNAL