Meadowlark Gallery: The Artist Biographies

Gene Kloss (Alice Geneva) (1903-1996)
Born Alice Geneva Glasier, she became one of the foremost print makers in American art in the 20th century. Since then she has executed over 600 copper-plate etchings of California and Southwest subjects including Indian ceremonies, and experimenting, developed unusual tones of shading. Each plate had an edition between 5 and 225. She pulled every print herself, until the 1970s when she got a motorized press. She has also done oil and watercolor paintings. She spent her early years in Oakland, California. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, where her professor, Perham Nahl, encouraged her in intaglio printmaking. In 1925, she married Phillip Kloss, a poet and composer, and on their honeymoon they visited Taos, New Mexico and cemented a portable printing press to a rock near their campsite. Twenty years later, they built a home there, and she earned much respect there as a print maker of local scenes. During the Depression, she worked for the Public Works Art Project in the easel division that featured northern New Mexico, and her prints were distributed in public schools all over New Mexico. In 1972, she was elected an Associate in the National Academy of Design in New York City.
View high resolution images of works by Gene Kloss when available.