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WALTER UFER

(1876 - 1936)

Walter Ufer was born in Germany in 1876, and came to the U.S. in 1880 with his family, settling in Louisville, Kentucky. Having shown talent at an early age, he was apprenticed to a lithography firm, before leaving for Europe to study at the Royal Academy in Munich, where he met Joseph Henry Sharp and Ernest Blumenschein. In 1911 he married artist Mary Frederickson, and they traveled to Paris, Italy and North Africa before returning to the states. Ufer worked as an illustrator in Chicago and his first patron there was the Mayor, Carter Harrison. His patron paid for Ufer to travel to Taos, New Mexico several times, beginning in 1914. He moved permanently to Taos in 1917, where he joined the historically important Taos Society of Artists, and his friends, Joseph Henry Sharp and Ernest Blumenschien, who had already settled there. This group was formed in 1915 and worked together to promote the Taos art colony and further the goal of becoming an internationally recognized art center. In 1918 Ufer’s good friend, woodcut artist Gustave Baumann, also arrived in Taos to visit and ended up settling in New Mexico permanently.

The original members of this notable group, known collectively as the “Taos Six” included Eanger Irving Couse, Joseph Henry Sharp, Oscar Berninghaus, Bert Geer Phillips, W. Herbert Dunton, and Ernest Blumenschein. E. Martin Hennings joined the group later.

Throughout the remainder of his career, Walter Ufer concentrated on simple, non-dramatized paintings of the Native American. He worked with one model in particular, named Jim Mirabel, who became a close friend of the artist. He was very active in the areas of politics and social justice issues, supporting the local Native Americans who he felt had been oppressed and were fighting to retain their cultural identity. He was a Socialist and friend of Leon Trotsky, and was known to have participated in picket lines and labor group protests.

Though hampered at times by chronic alcoholism, his work won him great acclaim, and earned him membership in the National Academy of Design in New York. In 1920, Ufer became an Associate Member of the National Academy, and in 1926 he received the lifetime honor of being inducted as a full National Academician.

After the Stock Market crash of 1929, there was less of a market for his work and his financial situation took a turn for the worse. Fortunately, during the last twenty years of his painting career, he was lucky to have had a very supportive patron, William Henry Klauer, a well-to-do businessman from Dubuque, Iowa, who was able to give him enough financial backing to continue painting. Ufer’s health continued to deteriorate until his death in 1936.

His paintings can be found in the permanent collections of major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C.

For additional information, visit:
Wikipedia - Walter Ufer
Wikipedia - Taos Society of Artists
Smithsonian American Art Museum
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Exhibition: Walter Ufer - Rise, Fall, and Resurrection
HistoryNet.com - Walter Ufer