John De Puy (1927-2023)

Biography

Born in 1927, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, John De Puy's original roots were in New Mexico, with his grandfather, who owned a ranch in Mora in the late 1800s. In the early 1950s, De Puy studied with artist Hans Hoffman in New York, following service in the military as a medic during WWII and the beginning of the Korean War.

De Puy visited Taos, New Mexico, in 1949 and returned in 1952 to study with Louis Ribak at the Taos Valley Art School through the GI Bill. De Puy, along with Louis Ribak, Beatrice Mandelman, Agnes Martin, Robert Ray, Earl Stroh, Cliff Harmon, Ted Egri, and several others, would become a group of like-minded modern artists known as the Taos Moderns.

During the 1950s, De Puy and author Edward Abbey made a pact they would fight to protect and conserve the previously wild landscapes of the American Southwest-- one through a paintbrush, the other through a pen. Today, we now see many of these lands the artist painted throughout his career protected by park status or returned to their original caretakers.

A solo exhibition of De Puy's work was held at the Roswell Museum & Art Center in 2006, titled The Ground of Being, and more recently, a 2016 retrospective of his work was shown at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos.

In March of 2023, De Puy passed away peacefully in his off-grid home in Ojo Caliente, NM.

John De Puy at 203 Fine Art

The following exhibition catalogues, published by 203 Fine Art, feature works by John De Puy. Please follow the links to view the catalogues on Issuu.

DEUX VIES | 2022

Taos Moderns in Santa Fe | 2019

Taos Moderns Return to The Stables Gallery | 2018

John De Puy "Last of the Moderns" | 2016

Taos Moderns: Bridging the Gap | 2015

Photo by Paul O'Connor
Photo by Paul O'Connor

Schools of Study

Hans Hoffman School, NY
Taos Valley Art School, Taos, NM 1952

Selected Exhibitions

Santa Fe Fine Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM 1954
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO 1966
University of Calfornia, Berkeley, CA, 1966
Henry Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 1966
Stables Gallery, Taos, NM 1970
The Governor's Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1991-1992
Canfield Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2004
Roswell Museum & Art Center, Roswell, NM 2006
Addison Rowe Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 2014
Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM 2016

Works on canvas

Works on Paper