-
Artist: Datus E. Myers
The following biography was submitted in June of 2006 by Art Historian Michael Perez:
DATUS ENSIGN MYERS (1879-1960)
Born in Jefferson, Oregon on Sept. 29, 1879, Myers studied at the Chouinard School of Art in Los Angeles, and at the Art Institute of Chicago with famous artists Vanderpool, Freer, Betts, and C. F. Brown. Myers is best known for his paintings of the American West and his idealistic images of Native-American life.
Datus Myers and architect Alice Clark Myers first arrived in Santa Fe in 1923 on a painting trip. Like so many other artists, the Myers found Santa Fe irresistible, and in 1925 they moved into the Canyon Road neighborhood where they remodeled an old adobe on the Camino del Monte Sol (the name of a famous street in Santa Fe on which many artists lived and worked). Datus Myers had studied painting and sculpture at the Chicago Art Institute where he met Alice Clark, one of the first female graduates in architecture. He later taught at the Arsuna School of Fine Arts which occupied famous artist Mary Austin's home on the Camino after her death in 1934. In the 1930s, Datus Myers acting as a field coordinator for the Indian Division of The Public Works of Art Project, worked hard to create a greater awareness of the Indian arts in this century, however the major participants in the project were primarily then the leading Indian painters, potters and sculptors all of whom created significant artistic and historical documentation of their culture. Some fine murals were done by four Native American artists for the Department of Interior building in Washington. The Santa Fe Indian School became known as an institution that fostered both traditional and innovative arts.
Sometime about 1910 he was also known to have started to create many other murals. Several of these, depicting Western themes, are located in Chicago in Elementary and High schools. A kind and gentle individual, Myers works suggests the peaceful coexistence of the settlers and indians, illustrated in one mural, by including a pioneer mother and child in the Native-American environment and a young Indian woman with child in the settler's camp. The marked absence of weapons in the scene downplayed the more violent aspects of Westward expansion. Also, in 1939 he created a mural titled "Logging in Louisiana Swamps", which is located at the U.S. Post Office in Winnsboro, Louisiana.
Myers was a member of the San Diego Friends of Art, the San Diego Art Guild in 1924, and the Chicago Society of Artists. He exhibited at the Museum of New Mexico, and at the Art Institute of Chicago 1909-1921. His work is represented in permanent collections at the Museum of New Mexico, and at the National Collection of Fine Arts.
Datus Ensign Myers spent his remaining years in northern California in Siskiyou County where he died on Nov. 19, 1960.
Tanya Meade . General Manager . 214-960-0031
The Warehouse @ Collinwood 682-255-5525
The Shafer Collection / thewarehouseatcollinwood.com