Jozef Bakos Explained

Jozef Bakos
Other Names:Joseph Bakos, Joseph G. Bakos
Birth Date:23 September 1891
Birth Place:Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Death Place:Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.
Resting Place:Rosario Cemetery (Santa Fe, NM)
Nationality:American
Education:John E. Thompson
Alma Mater:Albright–Knox Art Gallery
Known For:Painting
Style:Modernism
Movement:Los Cinco Pintores
Spouse:Teresa Bakos

Jozef G. Bakos (1891–1977), known as Joseph Bakos, was an American painter best known for his Western landscapes.

Bakos was one of Los Cinco Pintores, who worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Bakos studied art with John E. Thompson at the Albright Art Institute in Buffalo, New York. He later followed Thompson to Colorado and taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

In 1920, while the University of Colorado was closed due to an influenza epidemic, Bakos visited Walter Mruk, a childhood friend and artist who was living in Santa Fe.[1] During his stay he exhibited some paintings together with Mruk at the Museum of Fine Arts. Following his relocation to New Mexico, Bakos worked for the U.S. Forest Service stationed at what is now Bandelier National Monument.[2] The next year Bakos formed an artists' group called "Los Cinco Pintores" (the five painters) with Mruk, Fremont Ellis, Willard Nash, and Will Shuster. Los Cinco Pintores was Santa Fe's first Modernist art group and produced works that depicted specifically American subjects such as the New Mexico landscape, local adobe architecture and Native American ceremonial dances. Bakos was an accomplished carver and made copies of Spanish Colonial furniture and doors.[3] In 1923 Bakos married another artist, Teresa Bakos, and they spent a good portion of their lives together.[4]

Denver Art Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Stark Museum of Art and the New Mexico Museum of Art hold works made by Bakos in their art collections.[5]

His home in Santa Fe, at 576 Camino del Monte Sol, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing building in the Camino del Monte Sol Historic District.[6]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Cunningham. Elizabeth. Masterpieces of the American West : Selections from the Anschutz Collection. 1983. Anschutz Collection. Denver, CO.
  2. Book: Cuba. Stanley L.. Jozef Bakos : An Early Modernist (1891-1977). 1988. Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico. Santa Fe.
  3. Book: Taylor. Lon. Dessa. Bokides. New Mexican Furniture 1600-1940 : The Origins, Survival, and Revival of Furniture Making in the Hispanic Southwest. 1987. Museum of New Mexico Press. Santa Fe. 0890131686. 223.
  4. Book: Flynn. Kathryn. Treasures on New Mexico Trails : Discover New Deal Art and Architecture. 1995. Sunstone Press. Santa Fe, New Mexico. 0865342369. 199.
  5. Book: Lewandowski. Stacia. Light, Landscape and the Creative Quest : Early Artists of Santa Fe. 2011. Salska Arts. Santa Fe, NM. 9780615469171. 163.
  6. Web site: [{{NRHP url|id=88000440}} National Register of Historic Places Registration: Camino del Monte Sol Historic District ]. National Park Service. Corinne P. Sze . February 12, 1988 . July 8, 2019. With