Gene Kloss, Tranquility of Winter, 1944

Gene Kloss certainly holds an equivalent position as master of the etching and aquatint. A native of California, Kloss enjoyed an exceptionally long and productive career, spanning eight decades from the mid-1920s until the early 1990s. She produced over 600 etched plates and hand pulled every print herself. Her earlier prints, particularly those of the 1930s and ‘40s, are highly prized for their beautiful, soft gradations of tone and sophisticated compositional sense. Kloss was the only etcher employed by the W.P.A. in New Mexico, and she produced nine prints for the program in 1933–34, all of which are now eagerly sought after by collectors. . . Ceremonial scenes of northern New Mexico’s Pueblo and Hispanic communities remained Kloss’s primary subject matter throughout her career.  —David Clemmer, Serenading the Light: Painters of the Southwest

Born Alice Geneva Glaiser, the artist took her husband’s last name and used “Gene” as her first. She and Phillips Kloss were native to California and first visited New Mexico on their honeymoon in 1925, where, as she states, “We entered the Magdalena plain at sunset—one of those incredible ones that was made of color. I was a New Mexican from then on.” For many years, the couple lived part-time in Taos and spent winters in Berkeley, then moved permanently to Taos after World War II. In the 1920s Gene was able to make a meager income selling her prints. Then during the 1930s, she was given the opportunity to fully develop her art within the easel division of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project.

In some regions of the United States—particularly in and around New York—the WPA/FAP proved an important stimulus to American printmaking. In New Mexico, however, its effect was limited by the fact that none of the sixteen graphic workshops established by the WPA/FAP was located in a state between Illinois and California. Lacking access to a federally supported workshop, Kloss was fortunate in that her work for the project coincided with her purchase of a large Sturges etching press. This, she recalls, “enabled me to do much larger plates than the smaller presses I had owned previously. . .”   —Clinton Adams, Printmaking in New Mexico: 1880–1990

Kloss’ artworks are held in a number of important collections, including the Carnegie Institute, Dallas Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Refs.: Clinton Adams, Printmaking in New Mexico, 1880–1990 (1991); David Clemmer, Serenading the Light: Painters of the Southwest (2003); Porter, Ebie & Campbell, Taos Artists and Their Patrons, 1898–50 (1999).