Village of Taos
Albert Looking Elk
- Savvy Price $2,500.00
- Gallery Price $3,500.00
- Title
- Village of Taos
- Artist
- Albert Looking Elk
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Sight size
- 7 1/2" height X 9 1/2" width
- Frame
- Gold finished fillet, followed by ornate gold-finished wood molding
- Frame size
- 13" height X 15 1/8" width
- Signed
- "Albert Looking Elk" at viewer's lower right
- Date of creation
- Circa 1930
- Condition
- Excellent, as appeared framed.
- Provenance
- RF-43
- Board size
- 8" height X 10" width
- About The Village of Taos
An idyllic scene reminding visitors of the beauty of Taos Pueblo against the backdrop of New Mexico's mountains.
- About Albert Looking Elk
- (1888-1940, Taos pueblo) "Albert Martinez, better known as Albert Looking Elk, entered the art world as a model when he was around twelve years old, and then as an adult, sold his own paintings to tourists.
At first reluctantly posing for Irving Couse, a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists (TSA), Martinez went on to make a career modeling for artists. Later, his wife and children would also work as artist models.
Looking Elk took his first and only art lessons from Oscar Berninghaus, another TSA founder. By 1917, if not earlier, Berninghaus set up Looking Elk with his first basic painting equipment including oils, easel, brushes, and canvas. He also received attention from the Taos Valley News in the July 16, 1918 edition: "Taos has a native artist...Albert Martinez of the Pueblo...He has painted a number of pictures of merit, several of which he has been able to sell at a fair price."
The "fair price" was seldom more than a few dollars, but his success at selling was such that he was said to be the first tribal member at Taos Pueblo to purchase an automobile -- a Studebaker. Looking Elk received more recognition than the other artists of that time, occasionally showing his paintings between 1923 and 1930 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, winning a special art award during his first group. Perhaps he earned this recognition because he sometimes painted in the style of the Santa Fe Indian School.
His primary work however, like that of Albert Lujan and Juan Mirabal, depicted scenes of the Pueblo itself. Although he sold paintings from his house in the village, like Lujan he also painted on the village plaza where tourists could find him. He often painted near his house on the south side but many of his compositions feature the north building. Also, like Lujan, he painted prosaic, non-romanticized scenes of Taos pueblo, in contrast to the often sentimentalized images created by the TSA artists. Looking Elk painted, however, with more atmospheric light and color than Lujan, giving his work much appeal to tourists and apparently commanding a higher price." AskArt.com - Cultures
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