Land of Mañana
Walter Ufer was born in Hückeswagen, Germany, but his family immigrated to Louisville, Kentucky when he was four years old. When asked where he was from, he maintained he was from Kentucky. His father was a furniture carver and very poor. Young Walter delivered papers and lit gas lamps to survive. But luckily his artistic talent was recognized as a child. When he attended the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago at age seventeen, he resolved to become artist.
He did return to Germany for five years to study art in Dresden, where he learned life drawing. Coming back to Chicago, he briefly worked as a commercial designer and married a Danish woman who was adept at saving money. This allowed him to travel to Europe once more and improve his style. After stops in Venice and North Africa, he returned to Chicago where work was scarce. His saving grace was Chicago Mayor Carter H. Harrison II, who became a patron of sorts to Ufer, encouraging him to travel to the Southwest and paint the rich desert scenery and Native Americans in Taos. Here Ufer found his mark, and his art was transformed. The subject matter, the sunlit colors of the landscape, and the deep blue sky provided a treasure of artistic inspiration for Walter Ufer. He was elected as the seventh member of Taos Society of Artists.
In Land of Mañana, Ufer expertly communicates with paint the intense Taos light cast upon the arid land. During his years in the Southwest, he became friends with many of the residents in Taos, and the middle figure indeed depicts Ufer’s friend and longtime model Jim Mirabal. In the painting, time is of no concern to the three men. They are resting, taking a break in the afternoon sun. Ufer 's painting was somewhat radical at the time for the frank depictions of the Taos Native Americans. The artistic tradition was to ennoble them and romanticize them. Critics complained Land of Mañana presented the trio as loiterers. But Ufer cast a more objective eye on life in Taos, humanizing his Native American friends. The painting premiered at the Art Institute of Chicago's Annual juried exhibition, Chicago and Vicinity, and was awarded the Frank G. Logan medal for the best in show. The Union League purchased the painting shortly thereafter.
