Edward Chávez

Geneva, Nebraska post office interior with a mural by Edward Chavez, Building a Sod House. Edward Arcenio Chavez (1917–1995) was an American artist. His work straddled realism, expressionism, and abstraction; often incorporating both elements of modernism and his heritage as a New Mexican Hispanic and Native American artist. He was an artist with the Treasury Relief Art Project during the Great Depression of the 1930s. His work is also included in the collection at the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum.

Biography Chavez was born in Wagonmound, New Mexico. At the age of five he moved to Colorado with his parents and siblings. He began to pursue art after graduating high school, with encouragement from his art teacher. He worked as an apprentice to artist Frank Mechau while he attended the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, studying under Boardman Robinson and Peppino Mangravite. Later, Chavez would paint multiple murals for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression of the 1930s, as well as serve as a war artist and correspondent during World War II. He finally set up his studio in Woodstock, New York, an art colony, where he lived and produced art until his death. Funded by the Works Progress Administration's Fine Art Project, he created a mural for Denver's West High School, and he was commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project for a mural for the Center, Texas, post office, as well as a mural for the Glenwood Springs, Colorado, post office, which he and Jenne Magafan, a fellow art student and assistant to Mechau, collaborated to make. Section murals were meant to remind Americans of the qualities of their communities and provide hope of a better and stable future.

Chavez assisted Mechau with the making of several murals under the Section, along with the help of the Magafan twins, who he would often travel with and aid in the installation of their own murals. Although it was difficult for artists to cover the expense of travel and research for Section commissions, and they often paid less than they cost to complete, Chavez was able to relay his success in his commissions into a gallery career.

Works New Mexico, from the United States series (Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1946–1949, gouache on board) Building a Sod House (Post office mural, Geneva, Nebraska, 1941, oil on canvas)