Robert Ray

By the time Robert Ray decided to leave his native Denver and move to Taos in 1954, he had served in the navy in the South Pacific during World War II, earned art degrees in California and Mexico, and lived in Europe for a year.  His decision to move came after being invited by Eulalia Emetaz to exhibit at La Galeria Escondida, which at the time was the place to exhibit as a modern artist.  In Taos, Earl Stroh introduced him to Helene Wurlitzer, who encouraged him to remain and provided him with a studio residence.

Becoming one of the first beneficiaries of Mrs. Wurlitzer's generosity, Ray was an included artist of several commissioned by Wurlitzer to paint portraits of her for family members. The artist went on to show his work in regional and national exhibitions. He sold some paintings, but during the quiet winters of the 1950s, when Taos faced an economic shutdown, he was forced to return to Denver for a few months of employment.

The most frequent subjects of his early Taos oil paintings and woodcut prints were still lifes and semi-abstract landscapes.  He was fascinated by the light of the Taos Valley—not just the light itself, but the way in which the quality of light defines the place.

In his work, intense concentrations of light contrast abruptly with darkness and fragmented forms.  He worked closely with the then-Harwood Foundation and, upon his death in 2002, left the title of his home to what is now The Harwood Museum of Art.