Rebecca James, Part Two: Taos

Rebecca James. Photo courtesy of the Taos Historic Museums.

Back in Taos in 1933, Becky (as she now called herself) started a new life. She renewed friendships with Spud Johnson, Dorothy Brett, and Frieda Lawrence, among others. She also reconnected with entrepreneur Bill James. He had first noticed Becky while porch sitting in front of his latest business venture, the Kit Carson Trading Company. They discovered a mutual Buffalo Bill connection: Bill James’ father had known Judge Beck who was Nate Salsbury’s guardian. This was but one of many commonalities shared by Becky and Bill. They married in 1937. The gregarious Bill introduced his new bride to members of the Sunshine Club. Becky joined in the group’s poker parties. On occasion poker club members wore costumes—she dressed as a nun—and they regularly imbibed in Taos Lightning, the local bootleg whiskey. As Spud Johnson later noted, Becky began to act and talk tougher (he compared her rough language to that of a stevedore’s), “simply out of delight in finding herself ‘free’.” Becky became a Taos character. Her appearance was both striking and unmistakable: platinum hair tucked under a wide-brimmed black Stetson, jeans with an open shirt (often topped by a flowing black cape), black cowboy boots—all set off by her classic profile. A marked change from the sedate Victorian-influenced dresses of earlier years.

The Great Taos Poker Society. Courtesy of Taos Historic Museums.

Devoted to Bill, the love of her life, Becky supported his enterprises. When he entered politics in 1938, first as a councilman, then as a gubernatorial candidate, she penned articles and editorials for Taos and Santa Fe papers. When he founded the New Mexico Aberdeen-Angus Cattlemen’s Association, Becky served as the organization’s secretary. She also sold the resulting dairy products to townsfolk.

All the while, Becky continued to receive recognition for her landscapes, still lifes and genre subjects. The Denver Art Museum showed 31 of her glass paintings in 1933. Two other solo exhibitions followed at Santa Fe’s Museum of New Mexico in 1934 and a second showing at Stieglitz’s An American Place in 1936. A reviewer for her 1939 exhibition at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center commented on the unique quality of Becky’s style which was at once modern, abstract and full of symbolism.

Rebecca James White Roses at Twilight (1941)*

In accordance with the Colorado Springs reviewer, Mabel Dodge Luhan gave a good overview of Becky’s work in Taos and Its Artists:

The paintings on glass by Rebecca James, that are occasionally to be seen here in exhibitions, are perhaps the most exquisite productions of any Taos artist. Flowers—sometimes only a single flower—fruit, still-lifes composed of objects found in the valley, an ancient cross, an old Santo, are reproduced with a most poignant sensitivity to color and meaning.

When the modernist Rio Grande Painters group invited Becky to exhibit with them, she discovered a new medium. She also made a new friend, E. Boyd. Becky found in E. (as her close friends referred to her) a fellow aficionado of Spanish Colonial art. E. Boyd became the Museum’s first curator of Spanish Colonial Arts. Her seminal book, Popular Arts of Spanish New Mexico, and her research laid the foundation for all future scholars in this field. No doubt E. based the book on her notable collection of 1200 objects. Through her Becky would have probably seen museum-quality examples of colcha embroidery.

Colchas captured Becky’s artistic interest. She took lessons from her Taos neighbor, Jesusita Perrault, who had earlier taught the special stitch to adults and schoolchildren. An authority on Spanish Colonial embroidery, Jesusita had a fine collection of authentic colcha patterns. She had stitched her own indelible bird, animal and flower designs. At first mastery of the tiny stitch baffled and defied Becky. However, when she finally gained competence, she put the same love for the places and things that she portrayed in her paintings into her embroideries. By the early 1950s Becky’s colcha pieces had attracted the attention of museum curators. In 1952 E. Boyd installed 100 of her friend’s original embroideries in a solo exhibition at the Palace of the Governors. That same year Becky’s friend and fellow artist, Dorothy Benrimo, arranged the show at the Harwood Foundation in Taos. In an article in El Palacio magazine that year, Frieda Lawrence commented on seeing Becky’s colchas: “I got a vivid impression of Rebecca herself—the artist….You could feel how much of herself she had put into her work.” Further, through “her own genius” Becky had successfully mixed Spanish Colonial and European iconography. The result was “enchanting.”

"For Dorothy" Courtesy of the Millicent Rogers Museum

Becky herself spoke to the artistry of colcha embroidery:

This versatile stitch, for me, has provided a creative means to make a statement with stitches. The living world around one—the skies, the land, the people, grasses, trees—can be imbued with immediate life in a way never achieved by the mere decoration of a doilie, a pillowtop, a skirt.

Her colchas came to national attention. In 1963 editors of Women’s Day magazine visited Santa Fe for the first time. At the Museum of International Folk Art they viewed the “Embroideries by Rebecca James” exhibition. Delighted by the beauty of these colcha paintings, they asked Becky to write up their history, materials and stitching method. Her article appeared in the magazine’s April 1964 issue. In it Becky likened painting to embroidery. Whether with a paintbrush or with needle and thread, “both the painter and the hand-stitcher start with equally simple, ordinary tools—and for both the responsibility is the same—to create something that lives, speaks and gives delight.”

Holy Child of Atocha. 1963.024  Courtesy of the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art**

After a 20-year hiatus, three prestigious institutions hosted solo exhibitions of Becky’s work. In 1951 her glass paintings were invited to San Francisco’s Palace of the Legion of Honor and to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The renowned San Francisco art critic Alfred Frankenstein praised her work: “Mrs. James paints her people very naively, but with infinite pathos, sympathy and love.” He deemed the show,“one of the year’s most poignant.” In 1954 the Martha Jackson Gallery gave Becky her third New York exhibition.

Of Becky’s creative work, her writing is less known. She had typed up some of Mabel’s memoirs in the 1930s and compiled artists’ biographies for Mabel’s Taos and Its Artists, so she had a good idea of the work that went into a book. Since so much had been written about artists and writers, Becky elected to write biographies on living men and women, people she knew well. Most interested in frontier types, preferably connected with gambling, cattle wrangling or bootlegging, several such characters appeared in the 1953 publication Allow Me to Present 18 Ladies and Gentlemen, 1885-1939. Among the people she portrayed were Bill James, Jesusita Perrault, gamblers Doughbelly Price and Curly Murray (who fled the Texas Rangers on a trumped up murder charge), and Gerson Gusdorf (who introduced such ”firsts” to Taos as the first sewer line, Western Union, the telephone). Different as they all were, these men and women had one thing in common. As Becky put it: “neither mud nor snow nor sleet nor wind nor lack of public utilities could invade their love for Taos.”

Becky’s world came to an end when Bill died of a heart attack in June1967. Becky lost the will to live. She already suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which compounded her pain. A year later, following a last showing of her colchas at the Millicent Rogers Museum, she took her own life.

Rebecca James life work is preserved through her art, her writing and her scrapbooks. Taken together these informed the most comprehensive treatment of Rebecca James to date: "In the Shadow of the Sun : the Life and Art of Rebecca Salsbury James" (Ph.D.dissertation) by Suzan Campbell. And now, Debra Simon and Judy Sokolow are in the homestretch for their documentary, BECK.

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Adios for now,

Liz

To find out more or lend your support to the "BECK" Documentary, please contact Debra at Rahriemon@aol.com for further information.
Donations to Ra~Rie~Mon Productions in support of this film are tax deductible.  

* Rebecca James White Roses at Twilight Courtesy of the Taos Historic Museums.
** Photo of Rebecca James colcha embroidery, Holy Child of Atocha, courtesy of the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, Collections of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society.

Introducing Rebecca Salsbury Strand James: Part One, the New York Years

In spring 2010, to augment the Harwood Museum of Art’s exhibition Rebecca Salsbury James: Paintings and Colchas, curator Jina Brenneman asked me to lecture on Rebecca’s contemporaries. I decided to feature 6 male and 6 female artists from New York and New Mexico—places where Rebecca lived and which provided her creative inspiration. Representative of New York were modernists from Alfred Stieglitz’s circle: Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Paul Strand and Georgia O’Keeffe (who all stayed with Mabel in Taos) and from New Mexico: Mabel, Frieda Lawrence, Dorothy Brett, Barbara Latham and Dorothy Benrimo, who were part of the Taos art scene.

While perusing the Rebecca James scrapbooks, I met two documentarian/film producers Debra M. Simon and Judy Sokolow who were delving into Taos museums, libraries and archives for material on Rebecca James. Their interest grew out of Judy’s discovery of a photo in her family album. Looking at the woman standing next to Georgia O’Keeffe, she thought “My God…she looks a lot like my grandmother in her youth."

Courtesy of the Taos Historic Museums

The woman turned out to be Rebecca Salsbury, Judy's second cousin. After years of research Judy thought the story might be film worthy. She contacted her friend and fellow documentarian Debra Simon for her opinion. Filmmaker Debra replied "This story goes beyond the paint!"

Since our meeting in April 2010, Debra and Judy have been researching the archives on Rebecca Salsbury Strand James as well as those of Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand and Alfred Stieglitz. They have amassed enough material for a ten-minute promotional video on Beck which they hope to use to raise funds for a 90 minute documentary feature titled “Beck -an intimate portrait of the passionate life and extraordinary art of an American Original.”

Ever since I posted on Georgia O’Keeffe, I’ve been longing to relate Rebecca James’ story. She’s not so well known, so the piece grew too long. What follows is Part One: Rebecca’s New York years.

Rebecca Salsbury James broke the barriers between High Art and Popular Culture and in doing so she created a modernist vision that was literally decades ahead of where the rest of American Modernist Art really was in its thinking.
           -- Joe Traugott, Curator of 20th Century Art, New Mexico Museum of Art*

You could say that Rebecca Salsbury cut her baby teeth on show business. Her impresario father Nate Salsbury worked as principal owner and manager of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. The extravaganza happened to be in London in 1891 when Rebecca was born. Young Rebecca had a real-life connection to mythic figures like sharpshooter Annie Oakley, Lakota chief and holy man Sitting Bull, and Buffalo Bill.

Like her father, Rebecca had an adventurous spirit. It was nearly quelled by her proper Victorian mother. Following Nate Salsbury's untimely death in 1902, Rebecca endured the "dreary existance" of Rachel Salsbury's home. Summers spent in the family's oceanfront villa on the Jersey Shore afforded Rebecca some freedom. An athletic young woman, she enjoyed swimming in the ocean and being outdoors.

School provided a similar respite. Rebecca attended New York's Ethical Cultural School (ECS). Highly innovative for its time, the broad-based curriculum integrated academics with "manual arts" including creative writing, arts and crafts, and drama as well as nature study and field trips. Evidently this education suited Rebecca. She decided on the teaching career at the new ECS Normal School. Grounded in psychology, art design and modeling, and the history of education, Rebecca graduated as Valedictorian in 1915. She taught kindergarten at ECS for one year, then at its experimental Open Air School. Held on the building's roof, the bad air quality made her sick. She quit teaching and offered private classes. When these didn't pan out, Rebecca trained as a secretary. Using her typing and shorthand skills, she launched a new career transcribing medical records.

In 1919 Rebecca met Paul Strand at an exhibition of his photographs. He had studied photography in high school at ECS under the famed Lewis Hine. On a field trip in 1907, the school's camera club visited an exhibition of Photo-Secessionist photographers including Edward Steichen and Gertrude Käsebier at Alfred Stieglitz's 291 gallery. That day Paul Strand decided to become a photographer. Stieglitz later became his mentor and champion. With Stieglitz, Edward Weston and Paul helped define early American modernist photography, elevating it to a fine art.

When Rebecca met Paul, he was already gaining recognition for his signature direct, sharp, and emotional style of "straight" photography. Rebecca part probably saw Paul's realistic cityscapes and portraits of New York types– red-nosed Irish washerwomen, aging Europeans –photographs that identified the city's impoverished population. He had just begun to explore nature as the subject, so Rebecca would've enjoyed his imagery of leaves and grasses. What impressed or more, however, was the man himself. The feeling was mutual. The two fell in love.

Paul Strand, New York, published in Camera Work 1917, no. 49/50 photogravure

Paul took Beck (as she was called in New York) to meet Stieglitz in 1921. The encounter with the art dealer and photographer changed her life. Beck left her mother's "gold and brocade parlor," married Paul Strand in 1922, and met Stieglitz's wife Georgia O'Keeffe. Beck and Paul grew close to the couple. The friendship sustained Beck during Paul's long absences while he pursued his new interest in film. She vacationed with the couple, sometimes without Paul, at this Stieglitz compound at Lake George, New York.

The Stieglitz circle of artists stimulated Beck. Photography tempted her, but drawing and painting spoke to her. Self-taught, she worked at home on still lifes. Her models were vegetables. While at Lake George she made art with Stieglitz and Georgia. Equipped with an Eastman Graflex that Paul had given her, Beck explored photography and poetry. Stieglitz remarked on her talent as an "embarrassment of riches." Yet painting remained her preferred medium.

In 1926, when an anticipated trip to Europe fell through, the Strands decided to travel west. Six years earlier Beck had visited her father's ranch in Montana. The vast spaces had thrilled her and she longed for Paul to see the country. While in the Denver area, they made a pilgrimage to visit Buffalo Bill's grave and a small museum run by Johnny Baker, close friend and unofficial foster son to Buffalo Bill. In the state's national parks, Paul found new subject matter. He photographed "tangled roots and blasted tree trunks." At Mesa Verde he documented the Cliff dwellings while Beck painted watercolors.

The Strands rendezvoused with friends in Santa Fe. At the Museum of Art they saw Marsden Hartley’s El Santo, painted in 1919 during his stay with Mabel Dodge in Taos. Disenchanted with The City Different, Paul and Beck explored Frijoles Canyon at Bandelier National Monument, then motored on to Taos. They found bedbug-infested rooms at an old hotel. Two days later the couple met Mabel for lunch, and she invited them to stay with her. The landscape spoke to both Strands. Paul wrote Stieglitz “Gosh, I wish Marin could come out—and Georgia too would do extraordinary things.”

Rebecca Strand and Georgia O'Keeffe at Santo Domingo Pueblo

Paul’s prophesy came true. Georgia would do extraordinary things in New Mexico. The area would become her (and Beck’s) lifetime muse. In 1929, driven by exhaustion and difficulties in their marriages, Georgia and Beck headed west to Santa Fe. Shortly after their arrival, they went to a nearby Indian dance. There they chanced upon Dorothy Brett and Mabel Dodge Luhan. Two days later Georgia and Beck had living and studio space at Los Gallos (Mabel’s compound). Freed from New York’s social constrictions, they shed staid black dresses for more informal wear (Beck was the first to don trousers). They had many adventures. Beck gave Georgia driving lessons in Mabel’s Ford. The two accompanied Mabel’s husband Tony Lujan to Indian dances, and, escorted by him, ventured as far away as Mesa Verde National Park. They hobnobbed with John Marin and Mabel’s other guests.

The two women also found time to paint. Working alongside Georgia was daunting, but Beck relaxed when O’Keeffe said her artistic world was “a powerful one and a beautiful one.” By mid-summer Beck had completed 12 paintings. Conveying this to Paul, she added: “All that is not much for six weeks of work but I feel that every hour given to enjoyment and fun is legitimate as it results in excellent health and relaxation.”

Georgia and Beck returned to Taos the following summer with Paul, and John Marin and his family. Paul reported to Stieglitz: “The summer has been a grand one so far… a summer of much work. Beck has done some ten nice glass paintings and I, God knows how many photographs.” In 1931 the Strands returned for another summer at Mabel’s. Paul wrote Stieglitz that he had never seen Beck so concentrated before, adding that she “Just sticks to her job…and the things she has done show it.”

Song without Words (1929), oil reverse on glass. Collection the Harwood Museum of Art.**

Beck’s diligence paid off. In spring 1932 Stieglitz featured her paintings on glass with Paul’s new photographs at his An American Place gallery. Years earlier, adopting George's use of a piece of glass as a palette, Beck sought new possibilities. She began to explore the old folk art tradition of reverse oil painting on glass. This painting technique originated in Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries, and spread throughout Europe to America. Albuquerque blogger Laura Bruzzese summarizes it well:

Reverse glass paintings recorded both religious and historical imagery. The technique, which involves constructing a painting in reverse (i.e., highlights that would be painted last are painted first, and words are painted backwards so they will read correctly when viewed from the front) was favored because glass provided a surface for the painting as well as protecting it after it was finished.

Wassily Kandinsky celebrated Russian folk paintings with his images on glass. the great modernist painter and art theorist, well known to the Stieglitz circle, place these paintings on par with his better-known abstracts. The challenge of this technique appealed to Beck. When herfriend Marsden Hartley heard of her attempts to paint reverse oil on glass, he cautioned her. His own endeavors with the technique had "nearly killed him."

In 1928 Georgia had recommended Beck’s pastels and drawings to Opportunity Gallery for emerging artists. This was the first public showing of her art. Wanting to be judged on her own merit (not as Paul Strand’s wife), Beck exhibited under her own name. Her work drew the attention of renowned New York art critic Henry McBride. His review was succinct: “Rebecca Salsbury’s work makes one want to see more.” On the 1932 exhibition at An American Place, a reviewer commented that her paintings were "freshly felt and painted with a refreshing naivete and precision."

The Strands spent a final New Mexico summer together in 1932, this time in Ranchos de Taos away from the "sheer discomfort" of Mabel's houses. The following year they divorced and Beck moved permanently to Taos.


With that I'll leave you hanging, but not for too long. You'll have the Taos chapter of Becky's (as she was called in Taos) life next week.
 

Adios for now,

Liz

* Quote from the ten-minute promotional video on Beck (link to the two-minute teaser). Courtesy of Debra Simon and Judy Sokolov.

**Rebecca's painting measures 30 x 25 inches. Courtesy of the Harwood Museum of Art.
 

For more information on Rebecca Salsbury James, see Paul Strand Southwest and "In the Shadow of the Sun: the Life and Art of Rebecca Salsbury James" by Suzan Campbell, Ph. D. thesis, University of New Mexico, 2002.