Olive Rush
Fireside Chat
March 24, 2022
Bettina Raphael, Conservator Southwest Conservation Laboratory, in Santa Fe talks about New Deal Artist Olive Rush.
Born into a traditional Quaker family in rural Indian, Olive Rush broke with tradition and studied in art schools throughout the East Coast and Europe. She was mentored by a variety of known artists including the illustrator, Howard Pyle, and instructors at the New York Art Students League. After establishing herself as a successful illustrator in New York a portrait-painter in Chicago and acknowledged juried artist in museum and gallery exhibits, Ms. Rush moved to Santa Fe, NM at the age of 47. She came to start a new career in the growing artist colony there and for the next 40 plus years, Olive Rush’s work elevated the natural and cultural landscapes of New Mexico and expressed her innate spirituality. Mastering many media, she became best known for her ethereal watercolors and her New Deal era murals, including frescos. Though classically trained, Rush embraced the modernist movement, her work becoming increasingly abstract with time. After seeing the Armory Show of 1913, Olive said, “We found we could paint as we liked.” Many examples of her artwork are visible today both in public and private venues. Her home and studio on Santa Fe’s Canyon Road with its frescoed adobe walls and generous garden remain today as a tribute to her presence and a legacy to the city and community she loved.
Bettina Raphael -Art Conservator in Private Practice
A professionally trained Objects Conservator, Bettina Raphael graduated with an M.A. degree from the Art Conservation Program in Cooperstown, NY in the 1970s. After a year’s internship at the Smithsonian Institution she went on to work with conservation studios in Virginia, Birmingham, England, at the University of Denver, and the Museum of New Mexico.. Ms. Raphael has spent the last 30 years working in the Southwest focused on the preservation treatment and care of objects of archaeological, ethnographic and historic origin in museums and private collections. Raphael’s research interests have included the life and work of the 18th cen. restorer in Venice, Pietro Edwards; the construction and care of Southwestern tin decorative arts from the early 20th century; and most recently, the career trajectory of Olive Rush, the versatile and inspired painter who settled in Santa Fe, NM.
Olive Rush Resources
Major Publications
Olive Rush: A Hoosier Artist in New Mexico by Stanley L. Cuba. Minnetrista Cultural Foundation, Muncie, Indiana. 1992.
Olive Rush, Finding Her Place in the Santa Fe Art Colony by Jann Haynes Gilmore. Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, NM. 2016.
“Olive Rush’s Long Love Affair with Art”, by Peggy Seigel, Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 110, No. 3, Sept. 2014. pp 207-245.
Sources of Olive Rush Information, Records and Photographs
*Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. The institution has a large collection of archival material, including visual, written and printed records on Olive Rush. www.aaa.si.edu
*Santa Fe Monthly Meeting of Friends, Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Meeting owns a large collection of Olive Rush’s artworks, furnishings, archival records, and personal memorabilia. Contact: John Kretzmann, Clerk of SF Meeting at sfmmclerk@gmail.com or Bettina Raphael at bettinaraphael@msn.com .
*New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM. The museum has a sizable collection of sketches and paintings by Olive Rush. http://nmartmuseum.org
*Jann Gilmore, art historian and author of Olive Rush, Finding Her Place in the Santa Fe Art Colony. The author owns a collection of original letters written by Olive Rush along with other art and reference material. Several of the photos in my presentation are from her publication.
*Historic Santa Fe Foundation, Santa Fe, NM. The Foundation has some records in their archives regarding Olive Rush and her historic studio on Canyon Road. www.historicsantafe.org .
Olive Rush, "Boy with Cotton Bag — Cotton Economy ", biology building entrance, New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Las Cruces, New Mexico, true fresco. Photograph by Jann Haynes Gilmore.
Our Fireside Chat with Bettina Raphel on Olive Rush
Maisel’s Indian Trading Post
This project that was designed by John Gaw Meem, Maisel’s Indian Trading Post was a longtime fixture on Route 66 in downtown Albuquerque. The murals at the entrance of Skip Maisel's Indian Jewelry and Crafts store are a treasure. Olive Rush made several art pieces herself, and coordinated other artists, which included Pablita Velarde, Awa Tsireh, Harrison Begay, and Pop Chalee - a seminal group of Southwestern native artists.