ROCKFORD ART MUSEUM | COLLECTION | AMERICAN MASTERS

Walter Ufer

Walter Ufer was born in Louisville, Kentucky and educated at the Royal Applied Art Schools and the Royal Academy in Dresden, Germany. He also attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the J. Francis Smith Art School in Chicago. In 1911, he married Mary Fredericksen, a Danish-born artist. The couple spent two years painting in Paris, Italy and North Africa before returning to the United States. After their return, Ufer and his wife were invited to join the Taos Society of Artists. They became full members in 1917. Though the couple traveled extensively throughout their lives, they considered Taos, New Mexico, their home.

Walter Ufer’s energetic and stormy personality quickly made his mark on the Taos art community. Ufer was highly political and dedicated to eradicating social injustice. He was an active socialist and close friend of socialist leader Leon Trotsky. His paintings often depicted an unromanticized view of the daily life of socially oppressed Pueblo Indians. Ufer saw the Pueblos of New Mexico as an example of a people who had been vanquished by civilization.

Ufer was known for his bold, confident use of thickly applied paint, which was intensified by the vibrant color and sharp contrasting light of Taos. He often painted easily recognizable forms in an anecdotal manner. His work was strongly influenced by the art of John Singer Sergeant, and this influence is most dominant in his portrayal of hands, faces and garments.

By 1920, Ufer’s paintings of Taos Pueblos achieved great notoriety. The paintings sold well through this time, until the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The value did not increase again until long after his death. Today Walter Ufer is considered one of the most important Taos Society artists.