Cady Wells

Cady Wells (1904–1954) was a painter and patron of the arts who settled in New Mexico the 1930s. He has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, during his life and posthumously, as well as the 2009 book Cady Wells and Southwestern Modernism. OCLC 317824650. .

Biography

Henry Cady Wells was born in 1904 in Southbridge, Massachusetts, the son of Channing McGregory Wells, President of the American Optical Company and founder of Old Sturbridge Village.^[1] As a young man Cady had years of classical training in music, literature and the arts. At first his interests led him to study music, training to become a concert pianist. Then he shifted to stage design, studying with Joseph Urban, and Norman Bel Geddes.^[2] He was afforded all the cultural and educational advantages that a child of a wealthy first generation New England Family could receive. Wells, who was homosexual, was the family rebel. He had dropped out of five boarding schools and refused to fit in anywhere.^[3] He discovered the Southwest when his father sent him to Evans Ranch School in Arizona in 1922. Wells fell in love with the desert and mountain landscapes and began painting them.

In 1932, Wells recognized that his real talents lay in the area of painting, which would become his ultimate career. He was then 28 years old and ultimately formed his love of the desert landscape and the basis of his aesthetic and spiritual vision. He accepted an invitation from artist E. Boyd and her husband Eugene Van Cleave to come to Santa Fe, New Mexico. There he began portraying the southwest landscapes in watercolors. He soon became a serious painter working alongside Andrew Dasburg. He learned the landforms by walking and studying the mountains, mesas, drift wood and collecting river rocks. Wells was deeply influenced by Japanese and Chinese philosophies and aesthetics while he was in Japan (1935).^[4] His exhibitions were sometimes alongside better known artists as Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Adolph Gottlieb, and Jackson Pollack. In addition to Dasburg, he was influenced by George Rouault, Raymond Jonson, and Georgia O’Keeffe, and soon developed a personal, semi-abstract style that was praised by his peers.

His art career was interrupted when he entered into the United States Army in 1941. He did not paint again until he returned to New Mexico in 1945. In the U.S. Army, he worked with topographic maps.

While living in Taos, he restored an old Spanish home at Jacona, some twenty miles north of Santa Fe and there gained a reputation as a magnificent host. He was clever and witty, affectionate and generous for anonymously aiding numerous individuals during the post-depression and war years. Many in the community sought him out as a guest and a friend.^[5] He made many friends and soon became one of the social figures of Taos and Santa Fe. Wells was known for his love and contributions to Santa Fe. He served on the board of directors of Santa Fe's School for Advanced Research and helped found the Jonson Gallery in Albuquerque.^[6] One such contribution to the culture of Santa Fe began when Wells decided to give his collection of some 200 santos to the Museum of New Mexico in 1951 with the condition that a separate department be established for Spanish colonial art. He recommended E. Boyd for the job of curator, which she filled until 1952.^[7]

Wells died of a heart attack in Santa Fe in 1954 a few days shy of his fiftieth birthday.

Notable exhibitions

• 1935-49 Art Institute of Chicago
• 1936 California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
• 1939 New Mexico State Fair
• 1956 solo traveling exhibition organized by Museum of New Mexico
• 1967 retrospective exhibition organized by University of New Mexico Art Museum, traveled to Roswell Museum and Art Center, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Utah Museum of Fine Arts^[8]
• 2011 Harwood Museum of Art^[9]

References