Second Wave: The Beginning of a Post-War Era
13 September - 2 November 2025
Overview
painting by Earl Stroh

OPENING RECEPTION:

5 - 7 PM | Saturday, September 13, 2025

 

203 Fine Art is pleased to present Second Wave: The Beginning of a Post-War Era, an exhibition exploring the enduring impact artists supported by the GI Bill had on the evolving artistic scene of Taos, New Mexico, in the years following World War II. 

 

The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944—better known as the GI Bill—provided returning veterans with unprecedented access to higher education, professional training, and resources for reintegration into civilian life. For artists, it opened doors to study at prestigious institutions across the country and abroad. Art schools flourished in the region during this period, including the Mandelman-Ribak Taos Valley Arts School the Bisttram School of Fine Art, and the University of New Mexico’s Summer Field School of Art.

 

The Second Wave artists not only advanced Modernism but also infused it with a distinctive spirit--reflective, radical, and deeply connected to place. Taos, already celebrated for its luminosity and dramatic landscapes, became a magnet for these post-war innovators. Here, the “Taos Moderns” rejected Regionalism, Social Realism and commercial tropes in favor of bold abstraction and a reimagined landscape genre. 

 

Second Wave traces the development of these veterans into internationally recognized artists living and working in New Mexico, featuring paintings, works on paper, and sculptures by Emil Bisttram, Norman Bluhm, Lawrence Calcagno, John Chamberlain, Richard Diebenkorn, Ted Egri, Robert M. Ellis, Leo Garel, Fred Hammersley, Cliff Harmon, Janet Lippincott, Beatrice Mandelman, Louis Ribak, Oli Sihvonen, Earl Stroh, and others.

 

This two-gallery exhibition opens at 203 Fine Art on Saturday, September 13, 2025, 5 - 7 PM, and will remain on view through November 2, 2025. The exhibition continues at our second location, Gallery 215, viewable by appointment only. For further information or to arrange a visit, please contact us at art@203fineart.com or 575.751.1262.

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