Gene Kloss papers, 1932-1956

California and New Mexico etcher and painter, Gene Kloss, was known for her depictions of the American Southwest.

Also known as Alice Geneva Glasier, Kloss was born in Oakland, California, and studied at the University of California at Berkeley, the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. In 1925 she traveled to New Mexico to honeymoon with her husband, poet Phillip Kloss, and was deeply drawn to the region. Thereafter, Gene and Phillip divided their time between Berkeley and Taos, New Mexico, where Gene produced etchings and paintings of the landscape and its Pueblo inhabitants.

Kloss was employed as the sole etcher for the 1933-1934 Public Works of Art Project, producing watercolors and oil paintings, and a series of New Mexico scenes that were reproduced and distributed to public schools across the state.