Sale of works by Beatrice Mandelman, Louis Ribak to benefit UNM Foundation

Apr. 22—Beatrice Mandelman and Louis Ribak were two of the most influential artists in the creation of the group known as the Taos Moderns, that included the renowned artist Agnes Martin, among others.

Albuquerque's Weems Gallery is showcasing works by the two abstract pioneers in a benefit for the University of New Mexico Foundation. More than 75 framed and unframed works are available, with 60% of the proceeds funneled to the foundation through May 24.

"We discovered each other last August," said Suzanne Woodworth, gallery manager. "They were looking for a way to raise money for their arts program and foundation."

In 2014, the Mandelman-Ribak Foundation donated more than 4,500 pieces to UNM. The works were earmarked for sale to support UNM's art programs, as well as the museum, said Megan Lindstrom, executive project officer.

Mandelman and Ribak settled in Taos in 1944, moving there due to Ribak's asthma. It was cheap and the light was incandescent. There were no galleries and their home lacked indoor plumbing. The staggering landscape and diversity pushed them both into unexplored, experimental styles grounded in abstraction.

"Bea was a lone woman in a sea of male artists who were painting cowboys and Native Americans," Woodworth said. "Here she was, tearing paper, painting circles and creating texture."

She sought essence over realism.

"She was trying to experiment with new forms and new styles," Woodworth continued. "She did some pieces that were still lifes, but she experimented with shapes."

In the New York of the 1930s, the young Mandelman rubbed shoulders with the likes of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky. By the early 1940s, her paintings had appeared at the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

In 1942, Mandelman married Ribak, a highly-regarded social realist painter. Two years later, despite their New York success, they left. Ribak's health counted among the reasons, as did the FBI. Mandelman and Ribak had substantial ties to leftist publications and associations, leading to unwanted scrutiny by the federal government. In 1944, during a trip to Santa Fe to visit the artist John Sloan, the two artists ventured further to Taos.

Mandelman's and Ribak's evolution from social realism to abstraction was not immediate, but was underway by the late 1940s. This transition was spurred by Mandelman's studies under Fernand Léger in Paris in 1948, as well as an influx of new ideas brought by the students attending Mandelman and Ribak's Taos Valley Art School, which had opened in 1947.

By the mid-1960s, many of the Taos Moderns had departed, but Mandelman and Ribak stayed. Their close ties to the landscape in Taos continued to subtly influence their particular inflection of Modernism, which strengthened and evolved over the following decades until Ribak's death in 1979 and Mandelman's in 1998.

Mandelman exploited the expressive possibilities of elemental form and color in her work. Her compositions are vibrant and full of energy, often with a densely-packed network of overlapping geometric and organic shapes. There is playfulness in her approach, but also purpose and restraint.

When compared to the work of Ribak, the enduring conversation between the two artists comes into view. Ribak's pared-down approach to composition stands in contrast to Mandelman's more densely-packed style.

For most of her life, Mandelman believed she lacked the acclaim she thought she deserved. But she made little effort to sell her work. In 1998, Forbes magazine wrote a glowing story about her, calling her the most significant living Modernist.

She died six months later.

"Her pieces starting selling," Woodworth said, "And she got the recognition before she passed away."