From Greenwich Village to Taos: Primitivism and Place at Mabel Dodge Luhan’s (review)

Flannery Burke's work challenges the romanticized notion of New Mexico as a 'world apart' from modernity, instead framing it as central to 20th-century modernism. Through her analysis of Mabel Dodge Luhan and her circle, Burke exposes the complexities and contradictions inherent in primitivism, a key aesthetic and political movement among modernists. She demonstrates how non-white individuals, including Pueblo people like Tony Lujan and Nina-Otero Warren, actively negotiated the terms of patronage and representation, often diverging from the interests of their Anglo benefactors. Burke's nuanced approach reveals the material consequences of these cultural encounters, particularly in debates over land-claim legislation, while also highlighting the enduring influence of modernist primitivism on contemporary issues in New Mexico.

Nickl, T. (2011). From Greenwich Village to Taos: Primitivism and Place at Mabel Dodge Luhan’s (review). Western American Literature, 46(2), 212–213. https://doi.org/10.1353/wal.2011.0055