By Anna Barry
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Ranchos Church
Screen print, Late 1940's
Signed lower right (see photo)
Titled lower left (see photo)
Edition: Unknown
This image depicts the famous church San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in Ranchos de Taos. It was built between 1772 and 1816. It was importailized in American Art History by Georgia O'Keefe and Ansel Adams.
Condition: Excellent
Image size: 5 x 7 inches
Sheet size: 6 x 8 3/8 inches
Anna Barry (1970-2001)
“In 1944, after several prior trips to the area during which they had become friends with several of the Taos Founders, Ira and his wife, the artist Anna Barry moved to Taos, New Mexico. They would reside in the area on and off until 1955. Like many others, Moskowitz was entranced by New Mexico's light, landscapes, and cultures. By the time Ira arrived there, the region had already attracted Georgia O'Keeffe, Robert Henri, and Leon Gaspard; the Southwest was starting to be recognized as an art center. Moskowitz and his wife became acquainted with Oscar Berninghaus, Andrew Dasburg, Ernest Blumenschein, and Mabel Dodge Lujan, among others. Ira wrote of that time that "Our house was always open and we had scarcely a single meal without visitors dropping in."
"Anna Barry was an artist/printmaker. She married Ira Moskowitz (from a long line of Polish rabbinical leaders) in New York in 1938. They soon visited Taos and Santa Fe in New Mexico, returning there for extended periods until in 1944 they moved there permanently—staying until 1949 when they returned to New York.
Her work in New Mexico depicts mostly the pueblos and their people, capturing ritual ceremonial dances in colorful serigraph prints and other artworks. She and Ira (also an artist) worked closely together during their New Mexico sojourns. The pueblos seemed their favored subjects there. She signed her New Mexico work as, "Anna Barry." Her prints are colorful and often detailed. The only ones I have seen (6 in all) were 5"x7" in size.
Anna probably lived longest in New York, but perhaps was also in both Europe and Israel for extended periods. (See the AskART Ira Moskowitz biography.)" Courtesy of Fred McCraw
Anna Barry (née Anna Barshefsky), painter, printmaker and teacher, was born to Russian émigrés Max and Ida Goldberg Barshefsky on 20 May 1909 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the 1930 U.S. Federal Census her family name is changed to Barish and they are listed as living in Bronx, New York. It is not yet known where she had formal art training but she was listed as a teacher on the 1940 U.S. Census. She married artist Ira Moskowitz on 13 November 1938 and they began frequenting New Mexico. They befriended such luminaries as Mabel Dodge Lujan, Georgia O’Keeffe, Oscar Berninghaus, and many others who had become attracted to the unique landscape. Barry and Moskowitz moved to Taos, New Mexico in 1944 and remained until 1949 when they returned to New York.
One can’t help but wonder if Anna Barry studied with serigrapher/painter Louie Ewing...
Category
1940s American Modern Plate Glass Prints and Multiples
