Anthony Kroll collection of Gene Kloss correspondence
Collection — Box: 1
Identifier: Ms. Coll. 20
Scope and Contents
Collection of 22 letters and note cards written to Anthony Kroll of Pasadena, CA from Gene Kloss from 1975 through 1995. Also includes a few print catalogues of the Collegium of Western Art for exhibitions in 1975 and 1980, a listing of Gene Kloss etchings available for purchase to Collegium members, miscellaneous Kloss biographical excerpts, and some biographical information and miscellany on Anthony Kroll.
Dates
- 1975-1995
Creator
- Kloss, Gene, 1903-1996 (Person)
Biographical / Historical
Gene Kloss (née Alice Geneva Glasier) had an incredibly successful seventy-year career as a painter, etcher, and printmaker. Born in Oakland CA in 1903, her father supported the family comfortably with his dairy and creamery business and her mother was kind and caring to not only her children but everyone in their neighborhood. Kloss attended the University of California at Berkeley where she majored in art. It was not until her last semester when she took a class with Perham Nahl that she discovered etching. Nahl said, “if this is your first time etching, you are going to be an etcher.” After her graduation from Berkeley in 1924, Kloss took classes at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Kloss began to sell her prints in San Francisco but only Gump’s gallery agreed to take them. She married Phillips Kloss in 1925 and for their honeymoon they went to New Mexico. They visited Phillips’s brother in Las Cruces and then travelled north to Santa Fe and Taos. On this trip they hauled a sixty-pound etching press so Kloss could make prints while they travelled. After their honeymoon they spent their summers in Taos and their winters in Berkeley. Shortly after she was married, Kloss stopped signing her prints “A. Glasier” and went by “Gene Kloss”. She purposely created a name that was gender ambiguous because she did not want to be judged based off of her sex but her talent. The Klosses were very interested in Pueblo culture and dedicated much of their time to visiting the Pueblos in New Mexico and attending dances and ceremonies. They became close friends with Adam and Marie Trujillo of Taos Pueblo, and members of the Trujillo family modeled for Kloss. Although her formal art education did not expand past the 1920s, she was committed to learning new etching, painting, and printing techniques. Kloss had an expansive art library that included books on Rembrandt and his printing process. She experimented with a variety of techniques like aquatint, drypoint, soft-ground and mezzotint. During the 1930s, Kloss was commissioned by the Public Works of Art Project and began to use a 1,080-pound Sturges etching press to create large pieces. It was also a goal of hers to keep her work affordable throughout her lifetime, it was often sold well below the market value and she was continually creating prints to be sold at Gallery A in Taos well into her 80s. Kloss was elected as an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1950 and was promoted to full-membership in 1970. The Klosses began living in Taos full time in 1953, however after the upsetting event of her cherished dog being shot and killed they moved to western Colorado in 1965. The Klosses later returned to Taos where they lived for the remainder of their lives. Gene passed away in 1996 only a year after her poet husband Phillips passed in 1995.
Biographical note written by Alexis Kinney, Peter and Paula Lunder Colby College Museum Fellow
Biographical note written by Alexis Kinney, Peter and Paula Lunder Colby College Museum Fellow
Extent
1 Box
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
Letters are arranged chronologically with printed materials and ephemera at the end of the collection.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Gregory Kroll, 2022.
Creator
- Kloss, Gene, 1903-1996 (Person)
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Marissa Hendriks
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Lunder Research Center Repository
Contact:
The Lunder Research Center for the Taos Society of Artists
The Couse-Sharp Historic Site
146 Kit Carson Road
Taos NM 87571 USA
575-751-0369
mhendriks@couse-sharp.org
The Lunder Research Center for the Taos Society of Artists
The Couse-Sharp Historic Site
146 Kit Carson Road
Taos NM 87571 USA
575-751-0369
mhendriks@couse-sharp.org