American Art Collaborative

Santa Fe was a pilgrimage spot for many Chicago artists in the 1920s, and Emil Armin made his first trip there in 1928. He was so taken with the vibrant landscape and exotic culture that he made twenty paintings during his first two-month stay. Armin painted Wild West on his second visit during the summer of 1929, imitating the furious brushwork of European expressionist painters. Armin’s colors and shapes might look improbable, but his canvas captures the black shadows and electric energy of a sudden storm in the Sangre de Cristos