Mabel’s second memoir, European Experiences, relates the story of her marriage to Karl Evans. In Buffalo, eager to test her womanly powers, Mabel flirted with Karl Evans of her country club set. He was already engaged to one of her friends. “I had no thought of marrying him, but only of keeping him from Elsie.” The flirtation grew into an obsession for Karl. He broke with Elsie to court Mabel.

The exhibition and catalog Mabel Dodge Luhan & Company: American Moderns and the West inspired this series on Mabel’s life. The show opens with her birthplace and first home in Buffalo, New York.

Born to wealth on February 26, 1879, Mabel Ganson grew up in Buffalo, New York at the height of the Gilded Age….

It’s amazing how Mabel continues to inspire. The subject of a recent play performed earlier this summer in Taos (see below), her life is clearly suited to dramatic expression. So thought composer and librettist Nell Shaw Cohen. On August 12th the Harwood Museum of Art presents “Bringing Mabel Dodge Luhan to Life through Opera,” showcasing excerpts from Nell’s opera-in-progress. This new chamber opera follows Mabel’s journey as she reinvents herself during her early Taos years.

Now in its third month, the Mabel Dodge Luhan & Company exhibition lives up to “a tour de force of epic proportions.” The show takes up most of the Harwood Museum of Art with its 140 art pieces and over 40 literary works and material culture objects.

With a background in art of the Southwest, I have considerable expertise. Imagine my pleasure at making new discoveries. Taos, New Mexico, a photo by renowned French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, who spent one day here in 1947. Three small photos by Dorothea Lange shot in 1931, foreshadowing her epic Dust Bowl series.