Eva Mirabal, Buy War Bonds, 1942, offset poster, 19 3⁄4 x 16 1/8, unframed. Courtesy of Jonathan Warm Day Coming.
Oli Sihvonen, 3 by 3, 2 Blue, Brown, and Green, 1975, acrylic on canvas, 29 1/8 x 29 3/8. Courtesy of M.A. Healy Family Foundation Purchase Fund. Collection of Harwood Museum of Art.
ART News:
TAOS — This fall, Harwood Museum of Art is pleased to present Pursuit of Happiness: GI Bill in Taos, a large-scale exhibition that re-centers post-World War II American art history through the lens of the GI Bill and its transformative impact on the Taos art scene. On view from Sept. 27, 2025, through May 31, 2026, the exhibition precedes the publication of Pursuit of Happiness: World War II, American Artists and the GI Bill by guest curator and art historian MaLin Wilson-Powell.
Spanning the entire downstairs galleries of the museum, Pursuit of Happiness showcases works by twenty-seven artists who studied and flourished under the GI Bill in Taos and beyond. These artists brought with them diverse perspectives and forged new pathways in abstraction, figurative art, Surrealism, and modern landscape painting.
Eighty percent of the men born in the US between 1920 and 1927 served in WW II and eight of the sixteen million veterans used GI Bill education benefits. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 colloquially known as the GI Bill has been recognized as “The Law that Changed America.” Before WWII, only 24% of Americans graduated from high school and 80% never travelled farther than 200 miles from their birthplace.
“This exhibition reveals how our small town became a generative site for experimentation, connection, and a deeply personal strain of modernism,” said Nicole Dial-Kay, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at the Harwood Museum. “We can’t understand the creative legacy of Taos without looking at the GI Bill.”
Most of the work in the Pursuit of Happiness exhibition is from Harwood Museum’s permanent collection, including many rarely seen works. The installation also features loans of work by John Chamberlain, Richard Diebenkorn, and Ad Reinhardt from private collections and museums. Featured artists include Louis Catusco, Janet Lippincott, Beatrice Mandelman, Eva Mirabal, Louis Ribak, and Oli Shivonen.
Since the museum’s founding by artists Lucy and Burt Harwood a century ago, it has been supported and often staffed by artists. Taos has benefitted by its location attracting GI Bill generation citizen artists from across the US and around the world, including Paris, Chicago, North Carolina (Black Mountain College), San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Pursuit of Happiness explores how a generation of veteran artists brought new life to Southwest art and how Taos became a fertile ground for postwar creativity.
Pursuit of Happiness: GI Bill in Taos is made possible by the generous support of Mandelman-Ribak Legacy Endowment Fund, 203 Fine Art, Leslie and Rex Ramsey, Traci Chavez-McAdams and Scott McAdams, Sheree Livney and Steve Hanks, Steven Rudnick and those who made gifts in honor of Lois Rudnick, Wendy Shannon and Rick Higgins in memory of Robert M. Ellis.
Featured Artists
Emil Bisttram, Malcolm Brown, Lawrence Calcagno, Louis Catusco, John Chamberlain, Edward Corbett, Keith Crown, John DePuy, Richard Diebenkorn, Ted Egri, Robert C. Ellis, Robert M. Ellis, Wolcott Ely, Lily Fenichel, Leo Garel, Cliff Harmon, Janet Lippincott, Beatrice Mandelman, Eva Mirabal, Robert D. Ray, Herman Rednick, Ad Reinhardt, Louis Ribak, Oli Sihvonen, John Sloan, Clay Spohn, Charles Stewart
Exhibition Events
Member and Director’s Circle Preview
- 5–6 p.m., Friday, Sept. 26
- Remarks by Nicole Dial-Kay and MaLin Wilson-Powell at 5:45 PM.
- Please RSVP to lilywoodbury@unm.edu.
Community Celebration
- 6:30–8 p.m., Friday, Sept. 26
- Featuring live music from the Burque Jazz Bandits
- This event is free and open to the public.
Directors Circle Special Event (Limited tickets)
- 10–11 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 27
- With MaLin Wilson-Powell and Nicole Dial-Kay, Public Talk by Curator MaLin Wilson-Powell
- “Pursuit of Happiness: World War II, American Artists and the GI Bill”
- 2–3 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 27 — Free for members and with admission.
Community Day
- 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 9
- Free Museum admission and special activities for all ages
Visit Harwood Museum’s event page for additional program offerings.
About Harwood Museum of Art
Founded in 1923, Harwood Museum of Art celebrates Taos’s artistic legacy, cultivates connections through art, and inspires a creative future. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Harwood holds more than 6,500 objects that reflect the rich arts, culture, and history of northern New Mexico. Located in the heart of Taos’s historic district, Harwood is the second oldest art museum in New Mexico. For more information, visit harwoodmuseum.org.
Richard Diebenkorn, Untitled, 1951, oil on canvas, 54 3/4 x 37 3/4 in. Artwork (c) 2025 Richard Diebenkorn Foundation / Artist’s Rights Society (ARS, NY). Collection of University of New Mexico Art Museum, gift of the artist.
Oli Sihvonen, 3 by 3, 2 Blue, Brown, and Green, 1975, acrylic on canvas, 29 1/8 x 29 3/8. Courtesy of M.A. Healy Family Foundation Purchase Fund. Collection of Harwood Museum of Art.