Cady Wells and Southwestern Modernism

Edited by Lois P. Rudnick

Cady Wells and Southwestern Modernism recuperates the art and career of this fascinating painter and contributes in significant ways to the growing literature on region and twentieth-century American modernism. Rudnick presents Wells’s southwestern landscapes as inhabiting a queer space expressive of his sexuality and an apocalyptic post-World War II terrain haunted by Los Alamos—a vision that clashes with widely known art representations of New Mexico and disrupts the popular image of the region. Discussion of Wells’s postwar art produces a more inclusive picture of American abstraction of that period—one traditionally dominated by the New York School.
--Donna M. Cassidy, Professor of New England and American Studies and Art History, University of Southern Maine, author of Marsden Hartley: Race, Region, and Nation



Many books are hyped as a revelation, but this one really is. Working as a cultural historian unprejudiced by art history’s conventional bias toward already famous names, Lois Rudnick has rediscovered a mid-century American artist whose work easily stands comparison with any of his contemporaries. Fascinating essays Robin Farwell Garvin and Sharon R. Udall explore other aspects of the artist’s life, revealing his importance as a collector of Hispano religious art and as an intimate friend of Martha Graham.
--Christopher Reed, Asssociate Professor of English and Visual Culture, The Pennsylvania State University, author of Bloomsbury Rooms: Modernism, Subculture, and Domesticity



In this imaginative study of Cady Wells, the authors consider his multiple roles as an artist, patron, and collector, reclaiming his position as a significant New Mexico modernist, and positioning him within the broader cultural context of American art. The volume is, as well, an important contribution to gay studies, interweaving the socio-sexual environments that shaped the artist’s often conflicted nature.
--Betsy Fahlman, Professor of Art History, Arizona State University, and author of Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuth's Late Paintings of Lancaster


Clothbound; 160 pages; 74 color and 15 black-and-white images; 9.5 x 11; $39.95
978-0-89013-558-7