AMoCA Collection | New Mexico #3, oil on canvas, 23.5”x60”, 1960
RAiR | 1967-68
Howard Cook †
Howard Cook (1901-1980) was born in Springfield, Massachusetts and lived in Taos, Roswell and Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife, Barbara Latham, another RAiR artist in residence. Together, they helped launch the RAiR program over a decade during the winter months starting in 1967. They shared Donald Anderson’s home studio during the RAiR years. “Cook and Latham seemed to have had an extremely happy and productive time in Roswell. The compound had not yet come into existence when they first arrived; instead they lived in a small house adjacent to the Anderson property…” (‘The Roswell Artist-In-Residence Program: An Anecdotal History’ by Ann McGarrell and Sally Anderson; 2007:16)
Howard studied at the Art Students League in New York, then traveled the world for five years honing his craft, producing drawings for literary magazines such as ‘The Forum’. In 1932 Howard was awarded a fellowship from the J.S. Guggenheim Foundation. He used it to go to Mexico where he learned the fresco method of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Howard’s first architectural fresco is in Hotel Tasqueno, Taxco, Mexico. Howard received a second Guggenheim grant in 1934 and traveled the American south-east, which culminated in a mural in the Pittsburgh Courthouse. He was commissioned to produce frescos in San Antonio, Texas in 1937. During WWII he was an artist for the US Army. Howard is best known for his etchings of New York skyscrapers and for his Southwest prints, drawings and paintings.