Jozef Bakos

This solo exhibition about Jozef Bakos (1891-1977) paid homage to the Buffalo-born artist who became an important figure in the Santa Fe, New Mexico art scene. Oil and watercolor paintings from the artist's estate, museums, and private collections reflected his modernist approach to the western landscape and culture. Mounted in temporary quarters formerly known as the "Old Gym" on the Buffalo State College campus, the exhibition provided a new appreciation for Bakos' establishment of Los Cinco Pintores, the first modernist art group in Santa Fe, as well as his activism with other New Mexico artists and writers to support Pueblo rights to their land by lobbying against the Bursum Indian Bill of 1922, which ultimately was defeated.

Many of the works were subsequently lent to the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe for the exhibition Józef Bakoś: An Early Modernist, presented April 1, 1988 to June 15, 1989.