Cady Wells
| Cady Wells | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Henry Cady Wells November 15, 1904 Southbridge, Massachusetts |
| Died | November 5, 1954 (aged 49) Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Andrew Dasburg |
| Alma mater | Harvard University University of Arizona |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Rio Grande Painters |
Cady Wells (1904–1954) was a painter and patron of the arts who settled in New Mexico the 1930s. He has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, during his life and posthumously, as well as the 2009 book Cady Wells and Southwestern Modernism. OCLC 317824650..
Henry Cady Wells was born in 1904 in Southbridge, Massachusetts, the son of Channing McGregory Wells, President of the American Optical Company and founder of Old Sturbridge Village. As a young man Cady had years of classical training in music, literature and the arts. At first his interests led him to study music, training to become a concert pianist. Then he shifted to stage design, studying with Joseph Urban, and Norman Bel Geddes. He was afforded all the cultural and educational advantages that a child of a wealthy first generation New England Family could receive. Wells, who was homosexual, was the family rebel. He had dropped out of five boarding schools and refused to fit in anywhere. He discovered the Southwest when his father sent him to Evans Ranch School in Arizona in 1922. Wells fell in love with the desert and mountain landscapes and began painting them.
In 1932, Wells recognized that his real talents lay in the area of painting, which would become his ultimate career. He was then 28 years old and ultimately formed his love of the desert landscape and the basis of his aesthetic and spiritual vision. He accepted an invitation from artist E. Boyd and her husband Eugene Van Cleave to come to Santa Fe, New Mexico. There he began portraying the southwest landscapes in watercolors. He soon became a serious painter working alongside Andrew Dasburg. He learned the landforms by walking and studying the mountains, mesas, drift wood and collecting river rocks. Wells was deeply influenced by Japanese and Chinese philosophies and aesthetics while he was in Japan (1935). His exhibitions were sometimes alongside better known artists as Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Adolph Gottlieb, and Jackson Pollack. In addition to Dasburg, he was influenced by Raymond Jonson, and Georgia O’Keeffe.
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