Ila McAfee, The Intruder, ca. 1930s

No less than eight animals from five species inhabit this forest scene—a seemingly idyllic subject except for the “intruder” skunk at the lower left on which the gazes of the other animals are fixed. Their agitation however, unfolds in a kind of slow motion, echoed in the rhythmic textures of the surrounding plants and trees.

Growing up on a ranch in Colorado, McAfee began as a child to draw horses, which remained a ubiquitous feature of her artwork throughout her life. She is quoted as saying “I can draw horses in any position because I know their anatomy and how they look and what they do;… my imaginary compositions and all action pictures are painted from memory and imagination. . .” Her consummate skill in drawing animals carries forth in the present lithograph.

The narrative quality of this print and its compositional flatness suggest that it may have been a study for or a vignette from one of McAfee’s mural paintings, for which she frequently received commissions. This sophisticated abstract interplay of elements reflects the impact of modernism on McAfee’s work after she moved to Taos in the 1920s. Although McAfee would never be called a modernist per se, she nonetheless embarked on bold experiments with color and geometric form after being exposed to its ideas.

She attended classes at the West Lake School of Art in Los Angeles and the Art Institute of Chicago where, according to Robert Parsons, “she studied and worked under the tutelage of Lorado Taft, a noted sculptor, and muralist James McBurney, whose assistant she eventually became. After some years she moved to New York City and attended the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design. While in New York McAfee also worked as an illustrator and painted portraits of horses for wealthy owners and breeders. . . It was during this period that she began receiving her first commissions for murals. But while McAfee must have found pleasure in these successes one imagines that the emotional pull of the west continued to exert a profound influence. While in Chicago McAfee had met and married fellow art student Elmer Turner, who also happened to be from Colorado. So when the pair decided where they wanted to pursue their artistic careers it was the west to which they returned, and found lifelong inspiration.”

During a trip to California to complete a mural in Los Angeles, Ila and Elmer stopped in Taos and became so enamored with the beauty of the valley that they moved there soon after. McAfee dedicated her career to capturing the special qualities of the Taos landscape, painting and making prints in that area for 65 years.

This is a highly inventive lithograph by McAfee, well representing the work of a long-time member of the Taos Art Colony.

Refs.: Robert Parsons, “A Colorful Life: The Art of Ila McAfee,” Resource Library, December 4, 2006, www.tfaoi.com; Dean A. Porter et al., Taos Artists and Their Patrons, 1898–1950 (1999).