Olive Rush (1873-1966)

Olive Rush near her house in Santa Fe (1930)

Biography

Olive Rush's life was one of quiet heroism, perseverance, and ultimate success and recognition. She was born in a Quaker household in Fairmount, Indiana, and grew up on a farm there. Her earliest memory of making art was a successful drawing of a horse, completed when she was 3. Her formal art education was varied and arduous - a year at Earlham College, a year at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, and time at the Art Students League in New York. Perennially short of funds, she was able to establish herself as an illustrator in New York and support herself through that work, as she continued studies with Howard Pyle in Wilmington, Delaware, time in Europe and a stint at the Boston Museum School.

Rush's life - and her art - changed after a visit to New Mexico and Arizona with her father in 1914. She had a one-person exhibit in Santa Fe, indicative of the level of recognition that she had been able to achieve by that time, and she moved permanently to Santa Fe in 1920. The move represented a shift in the style and subjects of her art, and it underscored her dedication to easel painting and the construction of murals, rather than the illustrations on which she had supported herself previously. Her new subjects were the animals and landscapes of the American Southwest, and its peoples - Hispanic and indigenous. Over time Rush became a teacher of and inspiration for indigenous painters around Santa Fe. And her murals became highly sought after by public and private patrons. It was therefore natural that she should play a significant role in the production of murals for the programs of the New Deal.
Indian Family
Sunset in the White Sands Deserts (c.1949)

Critical Analysis

Rush had to struggle to overcome the many prejudices against a single woman of her era. At the Corcoran, she was initially rejected as a student, but applied herself to their rigid curriculum, eventually gaining acceptance and awards from the school. But she never accepted their style and didn't really feel at home in the art world until her arrival in Santa Fe, which welcomed artists in a free and democratic spirit, offering them, for example, free studio space in which to develop their talents. She repaid this community many times over with the mural art she created and the inspiration she provided for local artists, particularly indigenous ones.

The style that Rush evolved was influenced by several elements, ranging from Chinese art to Native American art to the work of Wassily Kandinsky. Paintings such as her mural for Florence, Colorado show a certain level of minimalism, coupled with a delicate but striking use of color. She was clearly her own artist, not a creature of a particular time, place or genre. In her mature style she had come a long way from the series of cherubs that editors of women's magazines in New York had once constrained her to paint.

Murals

References

  1. Deborah Lawrence, Book Review - Olive Rush: Finding Her Place in the Santa Fe Art Colony, by Jann Haynes Gilmore, Historic Santa Fe March 2016, p 5-8 (2016).
  2. Gussie Fauntleroy, The Gentle Rebel: Olive Rush, Western Art and Architecture April | May (2018).
  3. Olive Rush (1873-1966) (Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery).
  4. Paul Weideman, Olive Rush centennial this year, Sana Fe New Mexican February 2 (2020).
  5. Olive Rush House.National Register of Historic Places Nomination (1993).
  6. Peggy Seigel, Olive Rush's Long Love Affair with Art, Indiana Magazine of History Volume 110, Issue 3, September 2014 (2014).
  7. Stanley L. Cuba, Olive Rush: A Hoosier Artist in New Mexico. Minnetrista Cultural Center , Muncie, IN (1992).
  8. Jann Haynes Gilmore, Olive Rush: Finding Her Place in the Santa Fe Art Colony. Museum of New Mexico , Santa Fe, NM (2016).