ANNA E. KEENER S O U T H W E S T E R N
R E G I O N A L I S T
ANNA E. KEENER S O U T H W E S T E R N
R E G I O N A L I S T
Introduction by Michael R. Grauer Essay by Scott Higginbotham
PANHANDLE-PLAINS HISTORICAL MUSEUM Canyon, Texas September 13, 2014 – February 15, 2015
Curated by Michael R. Grauer
FRONT COVER: Chamisa and Asters No. 107, n.d., Oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches INSIDE FRONT COVER: Zion, 1969, Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches INSIDE BACK COVER: Street Scene, 1963, Monoprint, 13 x 10 inches BACK COVER: A Pilgrimage, 1963, Acrylic polymer on Masonite, 40 x 32 inches
ANNA KEENER
Southwestern Regionalist
“We know that women artists have worked in what would come to be called the American West as long as humans have inhabited the terrain… Between 1890 and 1945 women artist of all kinds worked in the West in great numbers, creating objects so abundant and diverse as to defy facile generalization.” Virginia Scharff “Women Envision the West, 1890-1945,” Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945.1
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PLATE 1 Untitled [Landscape], circa 1920 Oil on canvasboard, 7 x 10 inches
PLATE 2 Winter in Bonita Canyon, 1959 Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches
omen have been vital to art making in Texas and New Mexico for thousands of years. Female potters, weavers, basketmakers and painters have inhabited these regions and left their creative evidences for the world to see. The fine arts took a leap forward when German sculptor Elisabet Ney settled near Hempstead, Texas, in the 1870s. While scholars have plumbed at length the contributions of male artists to Southwestern art – save the perpetual obsession with the life and art of Georgia O’Keeffe – the works of women artists remain largely under-researched and under-exhibited. This is rather ironic as, in fact, in myriad approaches, women artists took far more risks than their male counterparts. Experimentation became the standard for women artists in Texas and New Mexico as they elbowed their way to the table dominated by their male peers. Sadly, many of them were taken far more seriously in their own generation than they are in our own so-called “enlightened” time today. Hopefully this exhibition will allow us to examine the contributions of one of these artists, Anna Keener, on the merit, depth and breadth of her work and decide for ourselves her place in American art. ARTIST AND EDUCATOR Anna Elizabeth Keener (1895-1982) was born in Flagler, Colorado. Raised in Dalhart, Texas, she befriended fellow painters Lloyd Lhron Albright (1896-1950) and Regina Tatum Cooke (1902-1988). Albright painted at Taos every chance he could and Cooke became the Taos News arts editor. Both Albright and Cooke likely encouraged Keener to paint in New Mexico, although evidence of her work in Taos is limited. Keener studied with Birger Sandzen at Bethany College in Linsborg, Kansas, achieving B.F.A. and B.A. degrees there in 1916 and 1918, •
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PLATE 3 A Northern New Mexico Home, 1965 Oil on gessoed Masonite, 23 x 31 inches
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PLATE 4 Madonna Forest Fantasy #2, circa 1964 Acrylic on Masonite, 36 x 28 inches
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respectively. Sandzen painted in Colorado, New Mexico, and, of course, Kansas, and became an associate of the Taos Society of Artists in 1922. He became well-known for his heavy impasto and Fauvelike palette. Keener applied the dynamic brushwork and vivid colors learned from Sandzen to landscapes in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, and occasionally painted genre scenes. Keener also enlisted in the United States Navy during World War I. Due to a shortage of clerical help during this time, the Naval Reserve Act allowed women to enlist. By the Armistice in 1918, over eleven thousand women had signed up as Yeomen (F) or “Yeomenettes.”2 In her own typewritten resume, Keener listed her service as a “Yeowoman.” She was stationed at Detroit, Michigan, and not discharged until October 1919. While serving in Detroit, she took night classes at the Detroit School of Design. Keener is buried at Santa Fe National Cemetery due to her U.S. Navy service.
PLATE 5 Untitled [Saddleback Mountain], 1926 Oil on canvasboard, 14 x 18 inches
In 1920, female artists making a living strictly in the studio were few and far between. Avenues for an art career in the United States were largely limited to teaching art and/or commercial art. Thus Keener began her art teaching career at Globe, Arizona, public schools in 1920. While there and under the wings of fellow teachers, she made numerous trips to the surrounding Apache reservations. In addition to Arizona, Keener would eventually teach in public schools in Kansas, New Mexico and Texas. Allegedly she gave one of her paintings to each graduating senior at Dalhart High School when she taught there. Like many female art teachers at this time, Keener supplemented her art education during summer breaks and any time she could at reputable art schools and art colonies and with private instructors. Consequently, she also studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, the Art Institute of Chicago and Colorado State Teacher’s College, and with private instructors in Mexico City. She learned lithography from the master of this medium in Taos, Joseph Imhof. Keener received her master of arts from the University of New Mexico in 1951. Keener married Louis R. Wilton at Dalhart, Texas, in November 1923. The union was an unhappy one and they divorced about 1930. She used her maiden name “Keener” for her artistic endeavors, but was known as Anna Keener Wilton in her teaching and scholarly pursuits. •
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PLATE 6 The River, circa 1940 Nailhead woodcut, 7 1/8 x 6 1/4 inches
She was an internationally recognized and honored artist. The Southwest in general and Navajo culture in particular served as a focus for much of her work. Written works include Spontaneity in Design (1923), describing the “scribble” approach to design. Keener was a Life Fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters and a charter member of the Art of American Society. In addition to these organizations, she was a member of numerous educational and art organizations. Her experiences as an educator also included a stint at Sul Ross State College (now University) at Alpine, Texas, from 1925-26, and for twelve years as art professor at Eastern New Mexico College (now University). While at Portales, Keener also maintained a studio in Santa Fe. She retired from ENMC in 1953 and moved full time to Santa Fe. Keener actively promoted art in education and everyday life and was among the organizers of the New Mexico Arts Commission. As a member of Artists Equity, Inc., she worked for legislation to establish a National Council of the Arts. PLATE 7 Early Morning, Patzcuaro, 1963 Oil over casein on Masonite 29 x 21 1/2 inches
NEW DEAL AND EXHIBITIONS Keener also participated in the New Deal art programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She painted a mural, Zuni Indian Pottery Woman, for the McKinley County Courthouse at Gallup, New Mexico, in 1942. And, she allegedly ran the New Deal Art Center at Gallup.3 While teaching, Keener maintained an impressive exhibition schedule. She exhibited in group exhibitions across the United States, sending a block print to the “Midwestern Artists Exhibition” at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1925, and at the “Exposition International Federation of Business and Professional Women” at the Stedelyk Museum in Amsterdam in 1933, for example. Among her solo exhibitions were those at Dalhart (1930); Ball State Teacher’s College, Muncie, Indiana (1931); and Amarillo, Texas (1932); and at the New Mexico Arts Commission in Santa Fe (1967).
PLATE 8 Saint Anthony of Padua, 1934 Painted wood, 18 x 6 x 6 inches
In 1969 Keener said: “I am stimulated by everything. Using new media (which in itself is exciting), each day challenges me to create something fresh and meaningful and of interest to others. I hope.”4 Keener was always highly experimental in her work. And, in true artist fashion, she moved easily back and forth between styles. For example, the heavy impasto of her late teens and early 1920s paintings, •
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learned under the influence of Sandzen, appears again with her experiments in acrylic polymers in the 1960s. The stylization of forms she used while living in Dalhart in the late 1920s is similar in treatment to Lloyd Albright’s work of the same period. This stylization of form re-emerges in the 1970s. Likewise her Regionalist style of the 1940s resurfaces in the 1960s and 1970s. In this way, Keener never felt locked into a particular “Anna Keener look.” She merely created however her muse dictated. Borrowing from both private and public collections, with this exhibition Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum presents a retrospective of Keener’s work from her time in Kansas and Texas to the conclusion of her career in Santa Fe. Sixty-five works in oil, acrylic, watercolor, lithography, block print, clay and wood are included in the exhibition. Given the number of works from her early exhibition checklists, the bulk of Anna Keener’s paintings from the late teens to about 1940 remain unlocated. Moreover, while not a prolific printmaker, her block prints and lithographs are exemplary and very difficult to find. Finally, her work as a sculptor was completely unknown. Hopefully this exhibition will provide the opportunity for a reassessment for her work so Anna Keener might rightfully assume her position in the history of art in Texas and New Mexico.
PLATE 9
The Apple, 1941 Watercolor, 24 x 19 inches
Michael R. Grauer, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs/ Curator of Art and Western Heritage Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas December 2014
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Virginia Scharff, “Introduction: Women Envision the West, 1890-1945,” Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995): 2. “The Yeomen (F) served in secretarial and clerical positions, though some were translators, draftsmen, fingerprint experts, ship camouflage designers and recruiting agents. Most were posted at Naval installations in the continental United States, frequently near their homes, processing the great volume of paperwork generated by the war effort. Yeomen (F), all of whom held enlisted ranks, continued in service during the first months of the post-war Naval reductions. Their numbers declined steadily, reaching just under four thousand by the end of July 1919, when they were all released from active duty. Yeomen (F) were continued on inactive reserve status, receiving modest Retainer Pay, until the end of their four-year enlistments, at which point all women except Navy Nurses disappeared from the uniformed Navy until 1942.” http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/prs-tpic/females/yeoman-f.htm
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Kathryn A. Flynn, Treasures on New Mexico Trails: Discover New Deal Art and Architecture (Santa Fe: Sunstone Press, 1995): 281.
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PLATE 10 Untitled [Mother and Child], n.d. Clay, 10 x 8 x 8 inches
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ANNA KEENER
An Artist Who’s One of Us
“But there is beauty here, the beauty of space and of freedom, and the beauty of the wind feeling its way along the brown, grassy swells and ruffling the yellow ridges. It is strong, stark beauty, having so few ornaments that each plane, each shadow and broken feature of the land, must play an intense part in the composition, subtly forcing the eye out on the horizon and up to the sky.” A.C. Greene, A Personal Country, University of North Texas Press, 1969
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magine living in Dalhart, TX in 1910. Dalhart was founded as a railroad town at the intersection of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad and Ft. Worth & Denver Railroad. Only eight years after incorporation, and 3 years after building its own water tower, livestock outnumbered human inhabitants 8:1 in Dallam County. Most of the fabled XIT Ranch had been divided up and sold. The nearest ‘big’ town is Amarillo, 60 miles away. I am sure the first thing that comes to your mind is that Dalhart must have been a great place to be a young artist. You would be correct. PLATE 11
Wyoming Hunters, 1970s Oil on canvasboard, 18 x 14 inches
PLATE 12
Silhouette, 1961 Acrylic polymer latex on Masonite 25 x 29 inches
One of the ‘compartments’ of my personal art preferences belongs to those that actually dug some roots into my particular corner of the Llano Estacado; experienced the beauty, abundance, depravity, anger, softness and subtleness of this corner of Paradise. For this experiential artistry the Fountainhead is Dalhart, and one of the primary springs is Anna E. Keener. My own journey to discover Ms. Keener actually came, not through her art, but from the many lives and links she touched after she left Dalhart. As I was researching the Prairie Printmakers, I discovered that Ms. Keener studied with Birger Sandzen at Bethany College (and that he actually penned a recommendation letter for her first job application); that she taught with Elizabeth Keefer (Boatwright) while they were both at Sul Ross State Teacher’s College; and that Ms. Keener and Ms. Keefer were the two primary art teachers for Mr. James Swann, of Merkel, TX, who went on to be a renowned printmaker and Secretary of the Prairie Printmakers. That link to James Swann is even more interesting to me when I realized that James Swann’s first published print Lone Pine Estes Park was printed while he was a manager at Southwestern Engraving Co. of Amarillo; with a direct connection to Margaret Seewald Roberts. •
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PLATE 13
Herefords on the Range, 1963 Oil on canvas, 21 x 25 inches
During my research of Ms. Keener’s life, I discovered her unique way of expressing the Texas Panhandle through what she learned at Bethany College. Throughout her landscapes, prints and etchings, I discovered that she had a masterful and distinct interpretation of depicting the vastness and light. What makes it so wonderful to me is that, even after leaving the Texas Panhandle, her heart still contained a vast inventory of desire and passion to continue dipping back into her Panhandle roots for subjects. As her career spanned through Arizona, Ohio, Indiana and New Mexico; she continued to not only depict Texas Panhandle scenes, but also participated in many local shows. Of particular interest to me is that, even after she had obtained a level of success and accomplishment, in 1964 she sent an inventory of her work to the Coon Memorial (Dalhart) Hospital Auxiliary show, to support their endeavors. Throughout her life, travels, education, contacts and experiences, Anna E. Keener never forgot, or marginalized where she came from. She saw in our open spaces and barren landscapes the same beauty that we who live here embrace above mountains, seascapes and cityscapes. She painted and printed OUR Panhandle. Scott Higginbotham, Dumas, Texas December 2014 •
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And in the morning I was riding Out through the breaks of that long plain, And leather creaking on the quieting Would sound with trot and trot again. I lived in time with horse hoof falling; I listened well and heard the calling The earth, my mother, bade to me, Though I would still ride wild and free. And as I flew out in the morning, Before the bird, before the dawn, I was the poem, I was the song. My heart would beat the world a warning – Those horsemen now rode all with me, And we were good, and we were free. – Buck Ramsey, “Anthem” Published in Buck Ramsey’s Grass 2005 Texas Tech University Press
PLATE 14
Dawn on the Rita Blanca, circa 1935 Oil on Masonite, 12 x 14 inches
PLATE 15 The Good Earth, 1952 Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches
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PLATE 16 Truchas, New Mexico, 1951 Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches
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PLATE 17 Snow Clouds, 1970 Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 inches
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PLATE 18 Madonna of the Rio Grande, 1961 Acrylic polymer latex on Masonite, 42 x 32 inches
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Jet Age, 1960 Casein on Masonite, 30 x 48 inches
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PLATE 21 The Goats, 1941 Stone lithograph, 9 x 12 inches
PLATE 20
Evening, 1952 Stone lithograph, 12/15, 13 x 10 1/2 inches
PLATE 22 Behind the Scene, 1952 Stone lithograph, 10/11, 14 x 10 inches
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PLATE 23 Peaceful Valley, 1953 Stone lithograph, 9 x 12 inches
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EXHIBITION CHECKLIST
33. Silhouette, 1961, Acrylic polymer latex on Masonite, 25 x 29 inches, Private Collection 34. Alert, 1962, Acrylic gel on gessoed panel, 34 x 16 inches, Private Collection 35. A Pilgrimage, 1963, Acrylic polymer on Masonite, 40 x 32 inches, Private Collection 36. Early Morning, Patzcuaro, 1963, Oil over casein on Masonite, 29 x 21 1/2 inches, Private Collection 37. Fawns, 1963, Oil on gessoed Masonite, 37 x 26 inches, Private Collection 38. Herefords on the Range, 1963, Oil on canvas, 21 x 25 inches, Private Collection 39. Maclovio the Pilgrim, 1963, Oil over casein on Masonite, 36 x 18 1/2 inches, Private Collection 40. Street Scene, 1963, Monoprint, 13 x 10 inches, Private Collection 41. Event in the Forest, Fantasy Series No. 1, 1964, Acrylic polymer liquitex on Masonite, 35 1/2 x 28 inches, Private Collection 42. Madonna Forest Fantasy #2, circa 1964, Acrylic on Masonite, 36 x 28 inches, Private Collection 43. Forest Fantasy Series #3, 1965, Acrylic polymer and gel on Masonite, 16 x 27 1/2 inches, Private Collection 44. Forest Fantasy Series #6, circa 1964, Acrylic on Masonite, 35 1/2 x 27 1/2 inches, Private Collection 45. Forest Fantasy Series #7, circa 1964, Acrylic gel on Masonite, 36 x 28 inches, Private Collection 46. A Northern New Mexico Home, 1965, Oil on gessoed Masonite, 23 x 31 inches, Private Collection 47. Old Man By Window, 1965, Casein on Masonite, 16 x 11 1/2 inches, Private Collection 48. Mexico Series, 1964, Monoprint, 10 1/2 x 12 inches, Private Collection 49. Homeward Bound, 1966, Acrylic on Canvas, 45 x 50 inches, Private Collection 50. Deer By Our Pond No. 83, 1967, Acrylic on paper mounted on Masonite, 18 x 14 inches, Private Collection 51. Petroglyphs Series #6, 1968, Acrylic on Masonite, 36 x 12 inches, Private Collection 52. Petroglyphs Series #10, 1968, Acrylic, 28 x 36 inches, Private Collection 53. Petroglyphs Series #11, 1968, Acrylic gel on Masonite, 36 x 28 inches, Private Collection 54. Zion, 1969, Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches, Private Collection 55. Dream Lake, 1970, Oil on canvas, 22 x 28 inches, Private Collection 56. Snow Clouds, 1970, Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 inches, Private Collection 57. Orchids, 1970s, Oil on canvas, 18 x 12 inches, Private Collection 58. Wyoming Hunters, 1970s, Oil on canvasboard, 18 x 14 inches, Private Collection 59. A Leaf, A Bone, and Stone, n.d., Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches, Private Collection 60. Chamisa and Asters No. 107, n.d., Oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches, Private Collection 61. Freeways and Bridges No. 64, n.d., Acrylic polymer on Masonite, 34 x 16 inches, Private Collection 62. Louisiana Mill, n.d., Linoleum block on paper, 6 x 9 inches, Private Collection 63. Rocks and Cedars, n.d., Oil on board, 24 x 18 inches, Private Collection 64. The Market, n.d., Oil on canvas mounted on Masonite, 27 1/8 x 19 1/2 inches, Private Collection 65. Untitled [Mother and Child], n.d., Clay, 10 x 8 x 8 inches, Private Collection
1. Barn on the Hill, 1920s, Linocut, 10 x 12 inches, Private Collection 2. Moonlight, 1920s, Linocut, 8 x 6 inches, Private Collection 3. Untitled [Saddleback Mountain], 1926, Oil on canvasboard, 14 x 18 inches, Private Collection 4. Untitled [Landscape], circa 1920, Oil on canvasboard, 7 x 10 inches, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Friends of Southwestern Art Purchase 5. San Xavier Mission, circa 1930, Woodblock, 9 1/4 x 12 inches, Private Collection 6. Saint Anthony of Padua, 1934, Painted wood, 18 x 6 x 6 inches, Private Collection 7. Dawn on the Rita Blanca, circa 1935, Oil on Masonite, 12 x 14 inches, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Marc C. Bateman 8. The River, circa 1940, Nailhead woodcut, 7 1/8 x 6 1/4 inches, Collection of Becky and Ken Phillips 9. The Apple, 1941, Watercolor, 24 x 19 inches, Private Collection 10. The Goats, 1941, Lithograph, 9 x 12 inches, Private Collection 11. In Old Santa Fe, 1950s, Photo offset reproduction of lithograph, 7 x 6 inches, Private Collection 12. Truchas, New Mexico, 1951, Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches, Collection of Becky and Ken Phillips 13. Behind the Scene, 1952, Lithograph, 14 x 10 inches, Private Collection 14. Evening, 1952, Lithograph, 13 x 10 1/2 inches, Private Collection 15. The Good Earth, 1952, Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches, Private Collection 16. Peaceful Valley, 1953, Lithograph, 9 x 12 inches, Private Collection 17. Cabresto Lake No. 102, 1954, Oil pastel on paper, 17 x 12 1/2 inches, Private Collection 18. Ecstasy, 1955, Casein on paper, 13 1/2 x 21 inches, Private Collection 19. Reminiscence, 1955, Casein on paper, 20 x 13 1/2 inches, Private Collection 20. The Fox and Owls, 1955, Casein on paper, 13 x 21 inches, Private Collection 21. Castle of the Departed Queen 1956, Casein on paper, 18 x 12 inches, Private Collection 22. Spring, 1956, Casein on Masonite, 24 x 20 inches, Private Collection 23. Platoro, 1958, Casein on Masonite, 36 x 49 inches, Private Collection 24. Zuni Designs, 1958, Casein on Masonite, 32 1/2 x 25 1/2 inches, Private Collection 25. Three Walk Through the Woods (A Walk in the Woods) circa 1958, Casein on Masonite, 36 x 16 inches, Private Collection 26. Winter in Bonita Canyon, 1959, Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, Private Collection 27. Bandelier National Monument Tyuonyi, 1960, Acrylic polymer on panel, 32 x 48 inches, Private Collection 28. Erosion, 1960, Casein on Masonite, 32 x 38 inches, Private Collection 29. Jet Age, 1960, Casein on Masonite, 30 x 48 inches, Private Collection 30. Open Door to Science, 1960, Acrylic, 48 x 37 inches, Private Collection 31. Madonna of the Rio Grande, 1961, Acrylic polymer latex on Masonite, 42 x 32 inches, Private Collection 32. Our Lake, 1961, Acrylic polymer on canvas, 24 x 20 inches, Private Collection •
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LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION We are grateful to the following lenders, whose generosity in sharing works from their collections has made the exhibition possible: Mr. and Mrs. Marc C. Bateman Scott Higginbotham Becky and Ken Phillips Private Collection
This publication is funded by Cynthia and Bill Gayden
CREDITS This catalogue is published on the occasion of the exhibition Anna E. Keener: Southwestern Regionalist An exhibition organized by: Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas www.panhandleplains.org September 13, 2014 – February 15, 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or information storage or retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher. Designed and Published by: WinshipPhillips.com Printed by: CENVEO/Trafton, Amarillo, Texas Copyright©2014 ISBN: 978-0-9893719-1-9 First Edition: 500 copies
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ANNA E. KEENER
S O U T H W E S T E R N
R E G I O N A L I S T
PANHANDLE-PLAINS HISTORICAL MUSEUM 2503 4th Avenue • Canyon, Texas 79015 806 651 2244 • www.panhandleplains.org