The Life and Artistic Journey of Joseph Bakos
Born in Buffalo, United States, Joseph Bakos was the eldest of seven children in a Polish immigrant family. He pursued his formal art education at the Albright Art School from 1912 to 1917, where he received the Joseph Albright Medal. During his studies, he apprenticed under Joseph E. Thompson. In 1918, Bakos moved to Denver, where he served as the first art instructor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Following an influenza epidemic that led to the university's closure in 1920, he traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to visit Walter Mruk. He eventually settled in Santa Fe, where he died in 1977. His former home in Santa Fe is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing building in the Camino del Monte Sol Historic District.
Artistic Style and Contributions
As an American Modernist painter, Bakos was a founding member of Los Cinco Pintores, a modernist artist collective in Santa Fe. This group sought to bring art to the public by exhibiting in schools, factories, hospitals, and prisons. His artistic evolution saw a transition from expressive, emotionally charged brushstrokes to a style characterized by structural and Cubist influences, utilizing simplified shapes and strong color blocks. His body of work focuses on several key subjects:
His paintings are held in various prestigious collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Denver Art Museum, the Phoenix Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Stark Museum of Art, and the New Mexico Museum of Art.
