Bert Phillips’s life in Taos is well documented. In the summer of 1898, he and fellow student Ernest Blumenschein came to Taos on a painting trip, a legendary event that has always marked the origin of the Taos Society of Artists (TSA). They rented a house across the street from Dr. Thomas P. Martin, known to everyone as “Doc.” In October, they attended a party given by Doc to honor his sister, Rose, who was visiting from Pennsylvania. By spring 1899, he had proposed to Rose, and they were married in the First Presbyterian Church in October.

In his early years in Taos, Phillips worked for the U.S. Forest Service, and he and Frank Staplin owned a curio shop, trading in Native objects and santos. By the end of the decade, Bert was on his way to making a living as a full-time artist. He was a founding member of the TSA in 1915 and, because of his continued presence in town, he was a first contact for linking other artists to people at Taos Pueblo who would model.

Vecinos y Amigos: Bert Geer Phillips and his Neighbors has a different, but complementary, task. It seeks to expand our knowledge of the context of those few paintings in which people in the Hispanic community modeled, to identify them, and to enrich Phillips’s stories with theirs. These paintings are not portraits as such, but imaginative tableaux in which people served as actors in stories that Phillips felt would have success in broadening his reputation on the exhibition circuit and finding buyers in a public fascinated by, but largely ignorant of, Southwest culture.

Paintings of Hispanic subjects are statistically rare within the work of the TSA.  Access was not based on any network in town similar to that at Taos Pueblo, but these people were probably known to Phillips for reasons other than modeling. Recognition of who they were allows a new understanding of his working method and greater insight into how paintings were conceived to fit the existing market and appeal to the stereotypes held by potential buyers. Knowing these people gives significance to those who have long been anonymous, broadening our view of the larger social dynamic of Taos. 

Couse-Sharp Historic Site thanks our partners who made this exhibition possible
Guest Curator James C. Moore
CSHS Hispano Advisory Council
Albuquerque Museum
American Museum of Western Art—The Anschutz Collection
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
Harwood Museum of Art
New Mexico Museum of Art
Sotheby’s