Howard Cook (1901-1980)

Howard Cook was one of the best known of the second generation of artists who moved to Taos. Beginning his association with Taos in 1926, he became a resident of the community in the 1930s. Cook remained until 1972 when he relocated to Roswell, New Mexico. His career accomplishments included two Guggenheim Fellowships, election as Academician in the National Academy of Design and numerous prizes and awards from art competitions. He developed a national reputation as a painter and muralist, but was also one of the premier American printmakers of his time. While his printmaking spanned five decades, perhaps his best work, as well as the greater part of his output, was made in the 1920s and 1930s. The Harwood Museum of Art will feature a selection of these in an exhibition, Howard Cook: Prints from the C. William and Eleanor Reiquam Collection. Mr. and Mrs. Reiquam, print collectors from Denver, Colorado, have donated an important collection of more than one hundred American prints to the Harwood over the past three years. Included in this major gift to the museum have been many prints by Cook, including lithographs, woodcuts, wood engravings, etchings, and aquatints. Sixteen of these will be on display in the George E. Foster Jr. Gallery for Prints, Drawings and Photographs. The exhibition began November 9th and continues through February 10, 2002. The prints represent a cross section of some of Cook's finest work from the first two decades of his printmaking career. They include pictures made in the Southwest, in New England and New York, and images of people