The Talpa Ridge, Taos

Born in 1897 in Topeka, Kansas, Kenneth M. Adams’ childhood artistic efforts were confined to copying paintings from books. The aspiring painter eventually found his way to programs at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York. While in New York, Adams met fellow artist Andrew Dasburg, who encouraged Adams to appreciate Cubist abstraction and to travel to Europe himself from 1921-23. Painting in a more Modern style than his older compatriots of the Southwest, Adams’ main subjects were that of Spanish Americans and landscapes he encountered while living and teaching at the University of New Mexico. Indeed, in The Talpa Ridge, Taos, Adams employs a modern yet impressionistic approach to depict his landscape in a bright palette with thickly applied brushstrokes.