Harold Joe Waldrum

Biography

Biography

Born in 1934 in Savoy, Texas, Harold Joe Waldrum moved to Tesuque, New Mexico in 1970 to become a full time painter, after graduating from Fort Hays State College with a master’s degree in studio art. Prior, he worked as an art and music teacher for over a decade in the Kansas public school system.

 

The focal point of Waldrum’s work became the adobe churches of Northern New Mexico. With a profound sense of color, he captured architectural details in an abstracted and minimal fashion. His “window series” focused on the interaction of color and form, and he pursued this rectangular composition for 10 years. His process involved photographing the interiors and exteriors of churches with a Polaroid camera, in order to capture light and shadow for reproduction. Waldrum’s photographs are held in the archives of the New Mexico History Museum.

 

Waldrum fled New Mexico in 1976, after a year of living in the Penitente village of Gusano, following a dispute that resulted in his shooting and killing a young man in self-defense. After this incident, his studio was burned to the ground by local residents. During this period, after escaping to Texas and Mexico, he took up residence in New York, returning to New Mexico in the summers to paint. In 1979 he relocated to Taos, New Mexico and began working in the former studio of Taos art colony founder Joseph Henry Sharp.

 

With the goal to preserve the churches that he had spent much of his painting career capturing, he established the El Valle Foundation, to raise consciousness and funds for the most endangered historical structures in Northern New Mexico.

 

In the later years of his career, he established the RioBravoFineArt Gallery in 1997 in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, where he lived until his passing in 2003. The building was a former Ace Hardware store, which he purchased through trading some of his paintings and prints. The exhibition space was also a working studio, and it is still in operation today.

 

Sources:
Santa Fe New Mexican, “Against the grain: The Art of Harold Joe Waldrum”
haroldjoewaldrum.com

 

Schools of Study

Western State College
Fort Hays State College

 

Partial List of Collections

Palm Springs Art Museum, CA
Albuquerque Museum, NM
Museum of New Mexico
The Harwood Museum, NM

 

Selected Exhibitions

“A Passionate Light”, The Albuquerque Museum, 2011
“Las Sombras” Tucson Museum of Art, 2019
Museum Barberini, Potsdam, DE 2017
Tally Richards Gallery
Gerald Peters Gallery

Works
  • oil painting by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    La iglesia de Arroyo Hondo, c. 1984
    Oil on canvas
    36 x 36 inches
    91.4 x 91.4 cm
    Signed on reverse with nth written under signature mark
  • church print by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Tres Contrafuertes de la morada, 1993
    reduction linoleum cut / linocut
    plate size 9 x 9" paper size 14.5 x 14.5"
    57 of 60
    Sold
  • church print by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    La reflexión, 2000
    etching, aquatint, ink on paper
    17 x 17 inches
    43.2 x 43.2 cm
    31 of 68
    edition lower left corner, signature lower right
  • church print by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    La Sombra de la Ventana Hacia el Oeste de la Capilla de San Antonio de Chacon, 1998
    etching, aquatint, ink on paper
    16 ⅞ x 16 ¾ inches
    42.9 x 42.4 cm
    27 of 63
    Edition lower left corner, signature lower right
  • church print by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Passion Del Sol En Estio, C. 1980s
    linocut
    23 3/4 x 23 1/2 in.
    (60.3 x 59.7 cm.), sheet: 30 x 30 in. (76.2 x 76.2 cm.),
    frame: 36 x 36 x 1 3/8 in. (91.4 x 91.4 x 3.5 cm.)
    30 of 71
  • church print by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    La iglesia abandonada
 / The Lost Church, 1993
    linocut ed. 32/42
    9 x 9 inches
    32 of 42
    signed
  • oil painting by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Black House T-12, 1980
    oil on canvas, triptych
    64 x 21 ½ inches
    162.6 x 54.6 cm
    Signed and dated on the reverse
  • oil painting by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Casa Ceruleo, 1980
    Acrylic on canvas
    37 ¼ x 35 ¼ inches
    94.6 x 89.5 cm
  • oil painting by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Pewter Cordova, 1979
    oil on canvas
    28 x 24 inches
    71.1 x 61 cm
  • oil painting by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    San Juan, 1975
    Acrylic on canvas
    60 x 54 inches
    152.4 x 137.2 cm
  • oil painting by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Una Ventana des Truchas con Cortina Roja, 1981
    Acrylic on linen canvas
    43 x 55 inches
    109.2 x 139.7 cm
  • church print by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Ranchos en la Mañana, 1992
    etching, aquatint, ink on paper
    15 x 15 inches
    38.1 x 38.1 cm
    Framing: 27 ½ x 27 ½ inches
    Framing: 69.8 x 69.8 cm
    21 of 50
  • church print by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    La iglesia abandonada
 / The Lost Church, 1993
    linocut ed. 14/42
    9 x 9 inches
    14 of 42
    signed
  • church print by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Abiquiu, 1984-1986
    Aquatint etching on paper
    11 ¾ x 11 ¾ inches
    29.8 x 29.8 cm
  • church print by Harold Joe Waldrum
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Sabado De Gloria, 2000
    etching, aquatint, ink on paper
    16 ¾ x 16 ½ inches
    42.5 x 41.9 cm
    Framing: 27 ½ x 27 ½ inches
    Framing: 69.8 x 69.8 cm
    16 of 63
    Edition lower left, signature lower right
    Sold
  • Harold Joe Waldrum, Ranchos en la Mañana, 1992
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Ranchos en la Mañana, 1992
    etching, aquatint, ink on paper
    15 x 15 inches
    38.1 x 38.1 cm
    Framing: 27 ½ x 27 ½ inches
    Framing: 69.8 x 69.8 cm
    31 of 50
    Sold
  • Harold Joe Waldrum, Ranchos Church I, ca. 1980
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Ranchos Church I, ca. 1980
    SX-70 polaroid
    3 x 3 inches
    7.6 x 7.6 cm
    Sold
  • Harold Joe Waldrum, Ranchos Church II, ca. 1980
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Ranchos Church II, ca. 1980
    SX-70 polaroid
    3 x 3 inches
    7.6 x 7.6 cm
    Sold
  • Harold Joe Waldrum, Ranchos De Taos, 1984-1985
    Harold Joe Waldrum
    Ranchos De Taos, 1984-1985
    Aquatint etching on paper
    11 ¾ x 11 ¾ inches
    29.8 x 29.8 cm
    Sold
Exhibitions