Walter Mruk (1883–1942) was an American painter who was a member of
Los Cinco Pintores a group of artists who worked in
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...
in the early twentieth century.
Mruk was born Wladyslaw Mruk
in Buffalo, New York to parents of Polish descent. He studied at the Albright Art Institute. By 1920 he had relocated to Santa Fe, where he worked as a forest ranger, and also as a cartoonist for the
Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper.
In 1924–1925, Mruk and fellow painter,
Will Shuster
William Howard Shuster Jr. (1893–1969) was an American painter, sculptor and teacher.
Youth
file:the Eve of Saint Francis.png, alt=six hooded figures walk rightwards bathed in a dim yellow light from an unseen source, upright=1.1, ''The ...
travelled to
Carlsbad Caverns on a painting adventure before the cave system was established as a national park. They painted in the caverns using lantern light. Mruk's work from this series was described in 1925 in the magazine, ''El Palacio'':
One of Mruk's paintings from this series is housed in the Denver Art Museum.
Collections
His work is held in the collections of the
Denver Art Museum,
the
Roswell Museum
The Roswell Museum (formerly Roswell Museum and Art Center) was founded in 1936 and is located in Roswell, New Mexico, United States. The museum features exhibits about the art and history of the American Southwest, as well as the Robert H. God ...
,
the
New Mexico Museum of Art,
among other venues.
See also
*
Santa Fe art colony
The Santa Fe art colony was an art colony in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States, which developed in the early 1900s.
The active time frame of the colony was between about 1910 and the second World War.
The Camino del Monte Sol Historic Distr ...
*
Taos Society of Artists The Taos Society of Artists was an organization of visual arts founded in Taos, New Mexico. Established in 1915, it was disbanded in 1927. The Society was essentially a commercial cooperative, as opposed to a stylistic collective, and its foundation ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mruk, Walter
1883 births
1942 deaths
Artists from Santa Fe, New Mexico
20th-century American artists