Skip to main content
Howard Cook
1901–1980
BirthplaceSpringfield, Massachusetts, United States of America
Death placeSanta Fe, New Mexico, United States of America
BiographyPrintmaker, painter, and muralist Howard Norton Cook is best known for dramatic graphic works of the 1920s and 1930s depicting people and scenes in New York City, the South, and New Mexico. Cook was an avid draftsman before he finished school in his native Springfield, Massachusetts. Following graduation, he won a one-year scholarship to the progressive Art Students League in New York City, where his teachers included etching master Joseph Pennell. Travel scholarships allowed him further study in Europe and Asia. In 1924, he began making illustrations for Forum magazine, for which he visited Spain, Constantinople, Malta, and France and spent four months traveling by ship between New York and San Francisco via the Panama Canal.
In 1926, Forum sent Cook to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to make illustrations of the region. Cook also journeyed north to Taos, a vibrant artists' colony, where he met and later married fellow artist Barbara Latham (1896-1989). Cook pursued woodblock printmaking as well as etching, and in 1927 he received his first solo exhibition at the Denver Art Museum; the following year he was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of New Mexico, in Santa Fe. Cook also established a relationship with Weyhe Gallery in New York, where his prints were first shown in 1928.Cook lived alternately in New England, Pittsburgh, New York City, Texas, and New Mexico; there, he established semi-permanent residence in Talpa, just south of Taos, in 1939. In 1932, the first of two Guggenheim Fellowships enabled him to spend several months in Taxos, Mexico, making prints and painting his first murals in fresco (a challenging technique of painting on wet plaster); the second fellowship, in 1934, saw him travel throughout the South and Southwest for a series of prints. Beginning in 1933 with a commission for murals for the Courthouse Building in his native city sponsored by the Public Works of Art Project (part of the so-called WPA depression-era government relief program), Cook received a steady stream of orders for such works. He continued to exhibit his prints in exhibitions throughout the United States and received several awards and honors. In the 1940s and 1950s he also served as a guest professor at universities in California, New Mexico, and the Midwest. In his last two decades, Cook was the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at museums and galleries despite health problems that were ultimately diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. Cook died in New Mexico at the age of eighty-two.
In 1926, Forum sent Cook to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to make illustrations of the region. Cook also journeyed north to Taos, a vibrant artists' colony, where he met and later married fellow artist Barbara Latham (1896-1989). Cook pursued woodblock printmaking as well as etching, and in 1927 he received his first solo exhibition at the Denver Art Museum; the following year he was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of New Mexico, in Santa Fe. Cook also established a relationship with Weyhe Gallery in New York, where his prints were first shown in 1928.Cook lived alternately in New England, Pittsburgh, New York City, Texas, and New Mexico; there, he established semi-permanent residence in Talpa, just south of Taos, in 1939. In 1932, the first of two Guggenheim Fellowships enabled him to spend several months in Taxos, Mexico, making prints and painting his first murals in fresco (a challenging technique of painting on wet plaster); the second fellowship, in 1934, saw him travel throughout the South and Southwest for a series of prints. Beginning in 1933 with a commission for murals for the Courthouse Building in his native city sponsored by the Public Works of Art Project (part of the so-called WPA depression-era government relief program), Cook received a steady stream of orders for such works. He continued to exhibit his prints in exhibitions throughout the United States and received several awards and honors. In the 1940s and 1950s he also served as a guest professor at universities in California, New Mexico, and the Midwest. In his last two decades, Cook was the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at museums and galleries despite health problems that were ultimately diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. Cook died in New Mexico at the age of eighty-two.