Cady Wells and Southwestern Modernism edited by Lois P. Rudnick

Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2009

The Museum of New Mexico Press released Cady Wells and Southwestern Modernism edited by Lois P. Rudnick on October 15, 2009. From the editor: 

H. Cady Wells (1904-1954) was the child of Yankee scions who built the American Optical Company in Southbridge, MA, and who went on to found “Old Sturbridge Village” as an Anglo-Saxon preserve of American colonial history. He “ran away from home” in the early 1930s, and settled in New Mexico (1932-1954), where he became part of the thriving gay (and straight) community of writers, artists, and patrons of the arts. Wells developed both a regional and national reputation for his darkly moody and technically brilliant semi-abstract watercolors, which responded to northern New Mexico’s physical and cultural landscapes in ways that set him apart from most of his New Mexican modernist peers.  After his return from the European theatre in World War II, he was exposed to the continuing weapons project at Los Alamos, 12 miles from his home in the Pojaoque Valley, which profoundly influenced his painting.  Wells met Fritz Peters in December 1951, and he spent the summer of 1952 with Fritz in France.  They remained lovers until March 1953, although their friendship continued until Cady’s death on November 5, 1954.  In December 1951, Cady wrote to a close friend about meeting Fritz:  “He is a writer named Fritz Peters.  His first novel, ‘The World Next Door,’ is one of the most moving of all of the books to come out of the war. His last one [Finistère] is the most sensitive book on homosexuality I have ever read.  We enjoy each other’s company and are congenial in every way.”

A Cady Wells (1904-1954) retrospective guest curated by Ms. Rudnick entitled Under the Skin of New Mexico: The Art of Cady Wells 1933-1953 was shown at The University of New Mexico Art Museum in January 2011. Cady Wells and Southwestern Modernism serves as the catalogue for this exhibition of 29 paintings. For more information on Cady Wells see Lois Rudnick's entry on Cady Wells entry in the glbtq ARCHIVE.

This post originally appeared in slightly different form on FritzPeters.info, October 7, 2009.