Over many decades the Museum of Texas Tech University built significant holdings of paintings, drawings and lithographs by Peter Hurd and  intaglios by Gene Kloss. These collections formed one starting point of the AP/RC. Kloss and Hurd lived in neighboring New Mexico and were quite well known in Texas. Hurd lived in San Patricio, located in southeast New Mexico,  just east of his birthplace in Roswell. He focused his attention on subjects related to rural and ranch life in eastern New Mexico and west Texas where he exhibited frequently in Lubbock’s Baker gallery. Hurd also painted in the 1950s a large historical mural in a rotunda at Texas Tech University that featured the early 20th century development of the city of Lubbock, endearing him to the local population.

Kloss had moved from California to Taos, a Spanish village near the Pueblo of the same name in northern New Mexico. A small European-American art community that had begun in this village in the late 19th century beckoned artists from California and the Midwest. Texas-based artists and art collectors from Dallas westward had a fondness for traveling to Taos, many spending the summers in the cooler New Mexican mountain environment.  Kloss’ popularity rested in some measure on her masterful etchings of Pueblo life and ceremony and small village scenes in this northern Rio Grande region.

Evans gifted five Kloss and four Hurd prints which added new works to the AP/RC  collections. In addition, Evans also donated four lithographs by contemporary Navaho artist, Tony Abeyta, and lithographs by Alexandre Hogue and Kenneth Miller Adams.

psbriggs

Peter Hurd; Moonlight, 1936; lithograph (253×405 mm)

Peter Hurd; Bernabé, 1937, printed 1968; lithograph (260×255 mm)

Peter Hurd; Self Portrait, 1936; lithograph (272×239 mm)

Peter Hurd; Don Antonio Saiz, 1936; lithograph (290×295 mm)

Gene Kloss; II Ceremonial Day at Taos, 1953; drypoint (227×301 mm)

Gene Kloss; To a Wedding at North House, 1973; etching and drypoint (303×379 mm)

Gene Kloss; The Valley of Valdez, 1973; etching and drypoint (303×381 mm)

Gene Kloss; Quoth the Raven Nevermore, 1973; etching and drypoint (278×353 mm)

Gene Kloss; In Ranchos de Taos, 1973; etching and drypoint (145×200 mm)

Tony Abeyta; Sunset, 1993; lithograph (272×225 mm)

Tony Abeyta; Mudhead, 1993; lithograph (270×234 mm)

Tony Abeyta; Forest Deity, 1993; lithograph (271×220 mm)

Tony Abeyta; Messenger, 1993; lithograph (275×217 mm)

Alexandre Hogue; Moonlight, 1934; lithograph (250×313 mm)

Kenneth Miller Adams; Ranchos de Taos Church, Moonlight, 1950; offset lithograph (225×275 mm) [from the New Mexico Artists Series, university of New Mexico Press]