Eva Mirabal: Three Generations of Tradition and Modernity at Taos Pueblo

Eva Mirabal (Eah-Ha-Wa, Fast Growing Corn, 1920–1968) studied for six years at the Dorothy Dunn Studio art program in Santa Fe, where she was a favorite of the program’s founder and served as an assistant to Dunn’s successor, Geronima Montoya (P’Otsunu, 1915–2015, Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo). By the time she was twenty years old, Mirabal was exhibiting in museums and galleries across the country. Mirabal’s first exposure to art was through her father Pedro Mirabal who was a popular model, along with Eva’s father-in-law Geronimo Gomez, for members of the Taos Art Society and for modern artists who came to Taos as part of Mabel Dodge Luhan’s circle. Pedro sat for a bronze bust created by Maurice Sterne and for a portrait by Nicolai Fechin, Pietro, now in the collections of the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. Gomez, one of the leaders of the Peyote religion at Taos Pueblo, is the non-traditional figure depicted in Ernest Blumenschein’s controversial painting Star Road and