MANDELMAN + RIBAK

Modern West is honored to debut an exhibition of works by Taos Moderns Beatrice Mandelman and Louis Ribak in the duo exhibition MANDELMAN + RIBAK. The exhibition will be on view July 15 through September 10, 2022. The Public Opening Reception will be held July 15 from 6-8pm. All are welcome to attend this evening celebrating these profound Modern artists and the breadth of their abstract works inspired by the land, light, color, and form of the American Southwest.

Beatrice Mandelman and Louis Ribak are two Modernists who had no intent to ever fit the form. Mandelman and Ribak were influential in the development of the group known as the Taos Moderns, including renowned artists Agnes Martin and Edward Corbett, among others, and Modern West is thrilled to exhibit works from the Mandelman-Ribak Collection. Managed by the University of New Mexico Foundation, the Mandelman-Ribak Collection is a unique and comprehensive collection of paintings and works on paper reflecting 50 years of work created by Mandelman (1912-1998) and Ribak (1902-1979). Modern West has curated a collection of paintings and works on paper, some of which have never been shown before, to be on display in this exclusive exhibition.

Beatrice Mandelman was a prolific Modern artist, known for her non-competitive but constant practice, bright modernist works focused on light and shape, and great inspiration and influence to other Taos Moderns and the Taos Valley Art School she left behind. Her lasting legacy is one of profound depth — over 4,000 paintings and works housed by the University of New Mexico Mandelman-Ribak foundation and represented by Modern West.

Louis Ribak was born in Lithuania in 1902. He found success in New York City as a social realist painter, collaborating with Diego Rivera on a mural in Rockefeller Center, exhibiting at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and participating in the 1934 Venice Biennale. Ribak married Mandelman in 1944, and the two settled in Taos, New Mexico where Ribak found new inspiration in abstraction, a move away from social realism. They opened the Taos Valley Art School, where they both taught classes, and opened a gallery out of their home.

Modern West is thrilled to premier some of these works which have never been shown publicly, and to partner with Southern Utah Museum of Art as they simultaneously exhibit a show of works by Mandelman, Ribak, and contemporary artists Shalee Cooper and Arlo Namingha — The Space Between, on exhibition June 4 – September 24.