Edward Chavez (artist)

[1][2] 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 worked as an apprentice to artist Frank Mechau while he attended the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center,[9] studying under Boardman Robinson and Peppino Mangravite.

[9] Chavez worked with the Treasury Department’s Section of the Fine Arts (SFA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) during the Great Depression to create and assist with the creation of multiple post office murals in Texas, Nebraska, and Colorado.

Jenne and her twin sister, Ethel, also an artist, accompanied Chavez on a Fulbright scholarship trip to study in Italy.

[12] Chavez’s 1941 mural for the Treasury Relief Art Project and the Works Progress Administration (WPA), in the post office in Geneva, Nebraska, is entitled Building a Sod House.

Director Edward Rowan instructed Chavez to proceed with the completion of the second sketch after making a slight revision to the spatial qualities of a figure on the left side of the composition.

The painting depicts teamsters unloading logs from a wagon, suggesting the time frame was set in the past, as the pine lumber industry had moved on to use more modern trucks.