New Deal Redesign

Louie Ewing,Navajo Rug, silkscreen of rug, Museum of New Mexico Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe	LOUIS EWING (1908-1983) Born in Pocatello, Idaho and grew up in that state. In 1933 moved to California and studied art before moving to New Mexico in 1935. Thereafter, he was hired by the WPA's Federal Art Project. There he learned about serigraph possibilities and soon found it to be his medium of choice. He illustrated various books with his silk-screening process and did a major New Deal portfolio for the Laboratory of Anthropology producing 200 silkscreen prints of his own paintings of fifteen Navajo blankets in their collection. The final distribution of all these portfolios is not known but copies are known to exist in libraries in Santa Fe and Las Cruces and at the Roswell Art Museum. Ewing died in Santa Fe in December 1983. Mr. Ewing was assisted in the silkscreen process by another prominent and living New Mexican artist, Eliseo Rodriquez, perhaps best known for his own cultural contribution at this time involving the straw appliqué process.
William Penhallow Henderson, The Old Cuba Road, mural, US Courthouse, Santa Fe	WILLIAM PENHALLOW HENDERSON (1877-1943) Born and raised in Medford, Massachusetts, Henderson lived for a time Texas and Kansas and then returned to study in two art schools in Massachusetts. He then traveled in Europe before returning to teach at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1906 for ten years. He moved his family to Santa Fe because of his wife's poor heath. She (Alice Corbin Henderson) became active in the Federal Writers' Project. In New Mexico his painting style changed significantly and he worked in different mediums. Economic survival required that he also do construction and assisted other artists in building their homes and furniture. He also illustrated one edition of Alice in Wonderland. His New Deal accomplishments included six large murals in the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Santa Fe and one painting is also part of the Museum of Fine Arts collection.
Nils Hogner, Untitled , mural painting, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales	NILS HOGNER (1893-1970) Hogner was of Swedish descent but was born in Whiteville, Massachusetts and studied art in Boston and Rhodes Academy in Denmark. In the 1920's he resided with his Navajo wife, Teckla, in western New Mexico where they ran a trading post. After a divorce, he moved to Albuquerque to become an art professor at UNM. There he met Dorothy Childs, an author, and they collaborated on thirty-seven of her books with his illustrations. He is also known for his mural work, the best known being the "Memorial to the Four Chaplains" which hangs at Temple University. Prior to his death, he lived in New York City. Most of his public art can be found in public buildings on the East Coast. Eastern New Mexico University (Portales) owns three large mural size paintings done as part of the New Deal depicting Navajo subjects/activities while a fourth is still missing.
Raymond Jonson, Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Jonson Gallery, Albuquerque	RAYMOND JONSON (1891-1982) Born in Chariton, Iowa, Jonson studied art at the Portland Museum School, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and The Chicago Art Institute. Art teacher, B.J.O. Nordfeldt encouraged him to become art director for The Chicago Little Theater (an experimental theater). Here his work took on abstract qualities. In 1922 he visited and moved to Santa Fe where he painted and taught for twenty-five years before taking a professorship at UNM in Albuquerque. He lived there until his death and his home now houses the Jonson Gallery on the university campus. During his lifetime he was a one-man strong force for modern art. His New Deal contributions can be found in the Jonson Gallery in Albuquerque; UNM Fine Art Museum, Eastern New Mexico University in Portales and Washington, DC.
Pablita Velarde, Governor Greets the Tourists , watercolor, Permanent Museum Collection of Bandelier National Monument–NPS	PABLITA VELARDE (1918-present) Born in Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico in 1918, she is also known as Tse Tsan (Golden Dawn" and is New Mexico's only living New Deal woman artist. She was schooled at St. Catherine Indian School as a child and later studied with Dorothy Dunn at the U.S. Indian School in Santa Fe along with other Native American artists who also worked in the New Deal Federal Art Project. Her major collection of New Deal art can be found at Bandelier National Monument where she was hired by the National Park Service to paint renderings of pueblo daily life. While somewhat controversial among her pueblo elders this gave her the opportunity to make needed funds to build her home and to truly stabilize her career as an artist. Both her son and daughter followed in her artistic endeavors and now her granddaughter is also a successful artist. She resides in Albuquerque and continues to paint with some visual limitations and also creates dolls depicting the traditional clothing of each Native American tribe in New Mexico. In addition to Bandelier, it is believed that her New Deal artwork was also sent to other U.S. Indian Service locations though the sites are unknown.