THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINE, October 1994, 15

THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINE

vot,.22 No. 9 OcT. 1994

furospective
Story by Charles Bennett

A Cnincilevrcc
4 Ploccw
anyon Road was initially a trail up the Santa
Fe River canyon into the mountains. This
canyon route was used as a pathway from the
Santa Fe area, where several groupings of Pueblo
Indian dwellings existed, up the Santa Fe River
canyon across the ridge of the Sangire de Cristo
Mountains to the Pecos Pueblo. Later, Canyon
Road was used by Santa Fe woodcutters and others
as an access road to the resources of the nearby for-
est and mountains. The earliest known map of San-
ta Fe, attributed to Joseph de Urrutia, 1778, depicts
present day lower Canyon Road as an unnamed
street of residential buildings surrounded by fields.
In the last half century, the Canyon Road and
Camino del Monte Sol area has taken on a new per-
sona: that of flourishing art center, with a myriad of
galleries, studios and shops, actively marketing arts
and crafts of all descriptions ranging from the naive
to the sublime. But the Canyon Road area has not
always affected the sobriquet "the art and soul of
Santa Fe" as it does today.
Santa Fe has been a magnet for professional
artists since the late 19th century. One of its first
public art exhibitions was staged in 1893 in the
Palace of the Governors by Warren Rollins. Rollins
was one of a small group of painters who had estab-
lished their studios in Taos, and although there
were few painters in Santa Fe at that time, he
decided that there might be sufficient interest to
show and sell his work there.
Rollins made an appointment with Territorial
Governor LeBaron Bradford Prince and proposed
holding an exhibition of paintings. Although the
governor was not encouraging, Rollins was given
permission to hang his work in the Palace of the
Governors which had several rooms that the His-
torical Society of New Mexico maintained as a pub- Randall Davey, Market Patzcure 24" x20"
THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINE, October 1994' 16
Tommy Macaione, Santo Fe LandscaPe oil 24" x36"
lic museum. The show proved to be a success' and
Rollins remained in Santa Fe to establish the Santa
Fe Art Club and teach classes within the Palace of
the Govenors. Plans are underway to reinstall
Rollin's studio as a period room at the Palace'
In the early 1900s artists with healih prob-
lems were attracted to the Southwest and to Santa
Fe's Sunmount Sanatorium which specialized in
the treatment of tuberculosis' One of the first was
oil 24" x 30"
William Vincent, Country Shadows
Carlos Vierra, a photo$rapher and painter. Another
was prominent portrait painter Sheldon Parsons,
who came in 1913 from New York to re$ain his
health. After a year or so in an apartment in the
Padre Gallegos house on Washin$ton Avenue, Par-
sons and his daughter became caretakers of a house
on Canyon Road that had been recently purchased
by yet another painter, Gerald Cassidy, and his wife,
the talented writer Ina Sizer Cassidy.
About this time another creative couple
arrived in Santa Fe. Poet Alice Corbin Henderson
came to Sunmount Sanatorium with advanced
tuberculosis, accompanied by her artist husband
William Penhallow Henderson and their young
daughter. While Mrs. Henderson was convalescin$
in the sanatorium, father and daughter, Alice,
bought an old adobe house on Camino del Monte
Sol very near its intersection with Canyon Road'
Later, Mrs. Henderson was released from the sana-
torium and rejoined her family. Following her
recovery, Mrs. Henderson became active in town
affairs and in an appearance before city council, she
persuaded the council to re-establish the name of
Camino del monte Sol to the road which had been
dubbed "Telephone Road" several years earlier
because it had the only telephone line in town'
At this time increasin$ numbers of artists
were finding their way to New Mexico. The openin$
of the Fine Arts Museum in 1917 was a momentous
occasion for Santa Fe. This event featured Santa Fe
and Taos painters and cemented the Museum of
New Mexico's commitment to the arts.
Other artists relocated to Santa Fe in the next
few years, including Olive Rush who in 1920
bought and restored an old adobe house at 630
Canyon Road. This building was nearly 100 years
old at the time of purchase and is one of the few
remaining adobes in Santa Fe which retains its
original mud-plaster walls' The Olive Rush Studio
is perhaps the best example of the kind of studio
established by the artists of the Canyon Road-
Camino del Monte Sol area before 1950.
Not all of the artists who came to Santa Fe
during the 1920s moved into the Canyon Road dis-
trict. At this juncture, many artists chose to live in
the area of College Street (later named Old Santa
Fe Trail) and Buena Vista. At the time this was the
outskirts of town. The true nascence of the Canyon
Road and Camino del Monte Sol area as the heart of
Santa Fe's artist colony can be attributed to the
group of painters known as Los Cinco Pintores, The
Five Painters. This group coalesced in the 1920s,
and consisted of Fremont Ellis, Willard Nash, Jozef
Bakos, Will Shuster and Walter Mruk. When the
five held the first of several annual shows at the art
museum, in December, 1921, Santa Fe had 7,000
denizens and an artist population of 15. The five
artists built adobe houses on Camino del Monte
Sol, near William Penhallow Henderson's studio'
At the invitation of those livin$ and working
 THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINE, October 1994, 1?

in Santa Fe, and with the encouragement of the

museum which frequently provided studio space for
SI newly arrived painters, artists continued to come to
Santa Fe, some to visit and some to stay, and some,
like ceramicist Frank Applegate, who came for a
visit, but decided to stay. John Sloan, who achieved
international prominence as an artist during his
lifetime, and wife Dolly, first visited Santa Fe in
1919, returning to Santa Fe every summer for the
next 30 years. The Sloans lived in a house near the
corner of Canyon Road and Garcia Street. The stu-
dio was later used from 1948 to 1975 by the
Japanese artist Chuzo Tamotzu. Another painter to Gerald and Ina
arrive and remain during this period was Andrew Sizer Cassidy,
Dasburg and family. Dasburg bought a house on ca.l92l-22.
Camino del Monte Sol Courtesy Museum of New Mexico,
Neg.91628
In 1928 two young artists from New York,
Charles (Chuck) Barrows and Jim Morris, seeking
fortune in the Southwest and solace from the
spreading economic gloom that was a year later to
become known as the Great Depression, moved into
a house on Canyon Road. In 1934 Harold E. "Hal"
West, a visitor to Santa Fe since 1926, rented a
house on Canyon Road and sent for his family.
After living in some other places in Santa Fe and
elsewhere in New Mexico, he established a studio
on Canyon Road in 1954. The Hal West Gallery
became a regular Sathering place for many artists
who had set up studios in the Canyon Road and
Camino delMonte Sol district.
Another artist of international repute to select
Santa F e for his home was Randall Davey, who in
1920 purchased the Capitan Candelario Martinez
property at the upper end of Canyon Road. Davey,
artist and bon vivant, converted the buildings on
Tommy Macaione,
the property including New Mexico's first circular
Left in 1990,
saw mill, into a residence and studio where he lived photo - Therese Zucal
and worked until his death in 1964. Courtesy Museum of New Mexico, Neg. 154369
Certainly one of the truly unique individuals Right ca. 1954-55,
of the Canyon Road art scene was Alfred Morang, a Courtesy Museum of New Mexico, Neg. 19631

painter, writer, and accomplished violinist. Morang

and his wife Dorothy came to New Mexico in 1937
and his studio became a popular gathering place for
the art community of Santa Fe. Besides writing a
column "Art in the News" for the Santa Fe weekly
newspaper, Morang also had a radio program that
was on the air for more than 15 years. He started
the Morang School of Art shortly after his arrival,
and influenced many young artists. Each Saturday
night, the MoranSs held an open house which few
Santa Fe artists missed.
Throughout the 1950s artists continued to be
drawn to the Canyon Road district. In the early
1950s artist Tom Dryce was operating the Artist
Exchange Gallery in the historic Rafael Borrego
house at 722 Canyon Road. A shop and an art
gallery, it was also headquarters for the Santa Fe
Art Club, which, Dryce recalled in a 1969 interview,
"...made history for great social gatherings, talks,
plays, musicals, dances (and) art exhibits..." Webb
Courtesy Museum of New Mexico, Neg. 37816
THE SANTA FEAN MACAZINE. Octob€r 1994' 18
Randall Davey.
Courtesy Museum of
New Mexico, Neg. 20341
Alfred Morang.
photo - Art Taylor
Canyon Road at Acequia Madre, ca. 19 15. photo - T. Harmon Parkhurst
Youngl, a student of Gerald Cassidy, opened his
Janet Lippincott.
Courtesy Museum of Puerta de Oro Gallery, housing both his studio and
New Mexico, Neg.51724 show rooms, and other artists such as Drew Baci-
galupa who opened the Studio of Gian Andrea,
moved into the adobe houses and compounds along
Canyon Road.
In 1961 the Old Santa Fe Association bought
the Rafael Borrego House, and a coffee house, The
Three Cities of Spain, opened shortly afterward.
Canyon Road at this time was still unpaved, and
sometimes virtually impassable because of mud and
chuck holes. In 1964 the road was paved, and more
shops and galleries moved to the old adobes alongi
the ancient winding road.
By 1969 there were, by one estimate, 500 pro-
fessional artists in Santa Fe, although not all of
John Sloan.
photo - Art Taylor them were represented by or showing in locai gal-
leries. At this point there were about 30 studios,
galleries and shops on Canyon Road. Artists who
ran their own galleries included Webb Youngl,
.f:i:i:ii:l
{art::::,,,
:l::,Lill
''lli::.:,:i'
,:,,,:Lilt,;t
Courtesy Museum of New Mexico, Neg. I 1047
known for his landscapes of the Southwest; Janet
Lippincott, on upper Canyon Road, who had estab-
lished her studio in Santa Fe in 1949; Foster Hyatt;
Fritz Scholder; Richard Maitland; and others. Jean
Seth's Canyon Road Gallery showed the work of
contemporary Santa Fe artists, carvings by Ben
Ortega of Tesuque and paintings by the artists who
had come to Santa Fe and Taos decades earlier and
who were now described as painters of ihe "Old
Santa Fe" and "Old Taos" school.
Other Canyon Road galleries representinS
groups of Santa Fe artists were Lorraine Mattock's
Printers Gallery, showing the work of Constance
Counter, William Lumpkins, Matthew Matte, and
others, and Poor Richards', where the work of six
local artists was shown. In 1969, f22, Santa Fe's
first photography gallery opened its doors and was
the talk of the town. Located on Camino del Monte
So1 near the corner of Acequia Madre, the gallery
had 2,600 visitors during its first five months in
 THE SA\TA FEAN MAGAZINE. October 1994, l9

Fremont Ellis.
Courtesy Museum of
New Mexico, Neg. 131507

Olive Rush.
Courtesy Museum of
New Mexico, Neg. 19270

DUSlNESS. also active in showing and marketinpi art, Canyon Alice

By 1982 close to 50 galleries and shops on
Canyon Road were actively showing the art of Santa
Fe artists, as well as an impressive array of art and
objets d'art from around the world. In 1983 the
Randall Davey Estate was acquired by the National
Audubon Society. Now a registered historic srte
and a bird sanctuary, the house and studio are pre-
ser.red as they were duringi Davey's lifetime and are
open to the public.
Today virtually every building along the six
blocks of lower Canyon road is devoted to the sale
of fine art, crafts, antiques, collectibles, textiles,
fiber arts and clothing - with a few restaurants and
watering holes thrown in. A popular "Art Walk," on
Fridays duringi the summer months, features art-
filled evenings of exhibit openings, artist receptions
and open houses at seventeen Canyon Road gal-
Road stands alone as the area to which the early Corbin/Henderson.
artists were drawn. As Alfred MoranS stated in an
essay 7o Think of Santa Fe is to Think of its
William
Painters, in a 1941 issue of The Santa Fean*, "...all PenhallowAlenderson.
phases of art in Santa Fe are typical of the place. It
is an environment that stimulates the best creative
impulses, and its future is bright r,vith the mysteries
of as yet unborn art."
Works by a number of these early artists will
be presented in an exhibit, The Painters of Cangon
Road, opening 5 p.m., October 7, 1994 through
October 22, 1994 at William Vincent Fine Art, 415
Canyon Road in Santa Fe.
l.Editors'Note: t1",?:-T;[:T:]
A literary magazine published briefly during the NewMexico,Neg.5e757

leries. 1940s. There is no relation to this magazine other

AlthouSh other districts in Santa Fe are now than a similarity of name. ,#