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Taos, N.M., is not the type of town where people park themselves at a coffee shop with a laptop. “It’s a place that requires interaction,” says the artist Tony Abeyta. “We [go to coffee shops] to wake up, to talk about art and where to get our cars fixed. People are working on creative ideas and engaging in high-intellectual conversations and crazy conspiracy theories.”
The culture of connection is partly driven by geography. Located in northern New Mexico, about 50 miles from the Colorado border, the town has a population of under 7,000. The great gash of the Rio Grande Gorge is on one side; the Sangre de Cristo Mountains rise on the other. The largest commercial airport lies a little over two hours south, in Albuquerque. In winter there’s enough snow to sustain a ski resort.
“It’s not the easiest place to live,” says the designer Raquel Allegra. “There’s a feeling of ‘This is hard; we’ve all got to look out for each other.’”
Taos has a rich history and a legacy of artistry that extends back some 1,000 years. Between 1100 and 1450, the Taos Pueblo people used adobe to build the main portions of the multistory Taos Pueblo, which has been occupied ever since. Some pottery shards found at the Pueblo are believed to be 800 years old.
The Spanish arrived in 1540; missions, colonization and independence from Spain followed. In 1898, 50 years after New Mexico was ceded to the United States, two young artists, Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips, broke a wagon wheel on their way from Denver to Mexico. Entranced, perhaps, by the same qualities that inspire the current influx of creative people — the light, the clouds, the mountains, the sage-blanketed plains, the cottonwood groves and the rift valley with the Rio Grande flowing along its floor — they stayed and eventually established an artist colony.
Sometime around 1917, Mabel Dodge Luhan, the renegade New York socialite who helped organize the 1913 Armory Show, also settled in Taos, and she would later bring Willa Cather, Georgia O’Keeffe, D.H. Lawrence, Ansel Adams, Martha Graham and many others to her corner of New Mexico. (Her house is now an arts center and inn.)
By the 1960s, the town was a counterculture mecca, a setting for the 1969 film “Easy Rider” and home to a number of communes. Over the decades, countless artists visited; some stayed: Dennis Hopper, Agnes Martin, R.C. Gorman. The sculptor Larry Bell, known particularly for his glass boxes, has a studio in Taos, where he spends half of his year.
In summer, the town hosts alfresco concerts, and area Native American tribes hold a powwow. You can go fly-fishing, white-water rafting and llama trekking. Taos is still an unassuming place, filled with low adobe buildings. The new Hotel Willa is a stylish but low-key remake of an old motel. A gallery is more likely to be an extension of an artist’s live-work space than a place to serve Champagne.
“There’s a vibration there that’s stunning and moving and just makes your heart feel good. The landscape is raw and it’s wild and you just want to get up close to it,” says the architect Rick Joy. “You feel enchanted, and you kind of even feel like you might be enchanting.”
The Insiders
Tony Abeyta, a Diné (Navajo) painter and jeweler who now works in Santa Fe and Berkeley, Calif., spent a decade living near Taos Pueblo.
Raquel Allegra, the Los Angeles-based fashion designer, purchased the 24-room Many Feathers Ranch in Valdez [10 miles north of Taos] in 2019, restored it and now runs it as a guesthouse.
Rick Joy, the Tucson-based architect of the Amangiri resort in Utah, is a frequent visitor to Taos.
Nellie Tischler grew up in New Mexico and runs the South Indian restaurant Paper Dosa in Santa Fe with her husband, the chef Paulraj Karuppasamy.
Illustrations by Richard Pedaline
Sleep
“I definitely suggest renting an Earthship Biotecture. It’s kind of a renowned architectural project developed in Taos by Michael Reynolds [in the 1970s]. They’re passive solar and made out of mostly recycled materials, like rubber tires filled with dirt that are used for exterior walls.” (Homes from about $195 a night)
“We recently stayed in the Adobe & Pines Inn, an old estate that’s now a bed-and-breakfast. You are in these smaller adobe buildings, both of which are like separate casitas. It’s a beautiful setting, with big trees, very green.” (Rooms from about $199 a night) — Nellie Tischler
“There’s so much history at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House. One room is a glass solarium, and there’s a bathroom with little glass windows that were painted by D.H. Lawrence. There are also great little books in the bookstore.” (Rooms from about $135 a night)
“The Historic Taos Inn is right there in town. They have these little casitas that have fireplaces, and they bring you wood. It’s a great place to go and celebrate Christmas Eve and go to bed early because you’ve been skiing all day.” (Rooms from about $150 a night) — Rick Joy
“El Monte Sagrado has a big indoor saltwater pool and nice lawns, and the rooms are cozy.” (Rooms from about $229 a night) — Tony Abeyta
Eat and Drink
“When you’re coming up from Santa Fe, your first stop is the San Francisco de Asís church in Ranchos de Taos. It has a garden and there’s a funky restaurant right there with a nice courtyard, Ranchos Plaza Grill. They’re family owned and have amazing New Mexican food. I have an enchilada every time I go there. They don’t just have the red and green chile that you get everywhere — it has a really distinct flavor. [The restaurant has] a really great view of the plaza, which was built before the church and later protected it, the town and livestock during raids. Dennis Hopper used to own the El Cortez Theatre there; now it’s a creative space.”
“When I’m waking up in Taos, there’s one place I want to go, and that’s World Cup. I bet I’ve been going there for 25 or 30 years. It’s got a great cup of coffee, very simple; it’s nice and strong and you sit out on the porch and watch all of Taos drive by on the main drag. I get homemade pecan milk with my early morning cortado.
“I like to eat outside at Manzanita Market and engage with the sky and clouds and people and dogs. It’s got a great healthy breakfast, homemade baguettes and beautiful vegan sandwiches for lunch.
“I have friends who drive all the way up from Santa Fe to eat at Orlando’s New Mexican Cafe. It’s small, colorful, unique. Everyone loves the New Mexican food there — enchiladas, tacos, everything savory and wonderful.” — T.A.
“My favorite restaurant is the Love Apple, in a little adobe chapel that’s painted white on the inside and lit by candles. You can get the most incredible meal with local ingredients. They still take checks, which I love.” — Raquel Allegra
“The old-school Lambert’s of Taos has been there since the ’80s. It’s family owned and not that touristy, and depending on the season, you can get game such as bison steaks, and green chile relleno.
“Breakfast is always good at Michael’s Kitchen Restaurant & Bakery. It’s almost a diner kind of place, with bacon and eggs and pancakes and stuff. The coffee is brown water, but there’s something about that kind of old classic American that I like sometimes.” — R.J.
Shop
“One of my dearest friends, Olga Nazarova, and her partner, David Michael [Hershberger], opened a shop called the Arc, anewera. They carry things from local artists, but then there’s an atelier in the back room where David makes clothing. He also makes these beautiful ceramic vessels to keep water in.
“A really sweet older couple owns Two Graces. They have incredible treasures. If I ever want a book, that’s where I go — books that are related to Taos, books about art, books about interesting people, children’s books. I like to keep those books in the house so people can have that nice connection to the place.” — R.A.
“Bead Creations sells all these different beads and makes accessories and jewelry. It’s a sweet little shop run by a mother and daughter, locals from Taos.” — N.T.
Take Home
“Mesa’s Edge has an impressive selection of jewelry by artists who are selected for their craftsmanship and authenticity. There’s a lot of diversity; some are Native American, others not. I recommend it for silver and turquoise. They also have some great works by artists from around Taos.
“Visit Maria Samora Jewelry’s studio and shop, where you can watch her pieces being made. She’s originally from Taos Pueblo.” — T. A.
“Tres Estrellas sells authentic and old Hispanic and Navajo textiles and rugs. I just love going there.” — R.J.
Explore
“The biggest and greatest museum in town is the Harwood Museum of Art, which was put together by the painters Burt and Lucy Harwood, and is a hub and center of contemporary art. It houses a wonderful group of seven paintings by Agnes Martin. She’s one of my great heroes. There are some benches Donald Judd made. I love this octagonal room with a skylight — very meditative. A lot of younger painters are represented in the collection. It’s on Ledoux Street, and if you walk down it there’s a whole crop of galleries.
“Drive the High Road. You get to see the full vernacular of northern New Mexico and the mountain villages. The San José de Gracia Church — it’s an amazing church. It’s got a wooden floor, wooden doors that have been there since 1850 and still retain their patina. People these days are like, ‘Where can I go that hasn’t been developed, that hasn’t been commercialized?’ In order to retain its identity, it has to be a little sketchy. The car has to be broken down in front of the church.
“One of my favorite things is to go to yard sales on Saturdays. It’s sort of local archaeology. They have great records sometimes. I’m like, ‘What are you doing with this post-punk industrial stuff in Taos?’ And they’re like, ‘I used to be a D.J. in L.A.’” — T.A.
“The real heart of Taos is Taos Pueblo. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s the oldest inhabited earthen architecture in the Americas. At Christmas they have deer dances. There are big bonfires and thousands of people go. It’s intense, but it’s a real thing.” — R.J.
“Drive to Stagecoach Hot Springs, a little north of Taos. There are fields of sage and the horizon goes forever. There’s the Rio Grande Gorge and, if you’re facing north and you look to your right, it’s these beautiful mountains.
“My cousin and I recently went to the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram and Hanuman Temple. It’s kind of a mecca for East Indians. They feed everybody for free, and people just sit in the gardens and the grass and the kids play. They give chai out. You have to park at the nearby school and walk down these little roads that Taos has developed over hundreds of years.” — N.T.
Practical Matters
“Everyone keeps weird hours, so always check.” — T.A.
“JSX [a regional airline that carries a maximum of 30 passengers per flight] is doing direct flights from Burbank or Carlsbad and other cities to Taos. It’s very civilized — much more convenient and more relaxed than going to a big airport.” — R.A.
These interviews have been edited and condensed.
The post The New Mexico Town That’s Still a Beacon for Artists appeared first on New York Times.
