Kenneth Milton Chapman
Kenneth Milton Chapman (1875-1968)
Born in Ligonier, Indiana, Kenneth Milton Chapman attended the Art Students League in New York and earned a degree of Fine Art from the Art Institute of Chicago. A propitious meeting with Dr. Edgar Hewett, a New Mexico archaeologist and later Director of the Museum of Fine Art in Santa Fe, led to Chapman’s move to Santa Fe and his subsequent painting and promotion of Southwest Indian art.
When Kenneth Chapman arrived in Santa Fe, he was only the second Anglo artist to settle there, following Carlos Vierra. From 1909-29, he was curator of Indian art at the Museum of New Mexico where a mural by him is installed in the St. Francis Auditorium. He taught Southwest Indian art at the University of New Mexico and wrote books on Indian Pottery including Pueblo Indian Pottery in 1933, and The Pottery of Santo Domingo Pueblo in 1936. He worked extensively throughout New Mexico and Arizona, studying and encouraging the work of the native peoples.
