Eduardo Chavez (1917-1995)

Born in Wagonmound, New Mexico, Eduardo Chavez was an illustrator, muralist, genre and landscape painter, sculptor, and lithographer. He studied at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center with Boardman Robinson, Frank Mechau, Arnold Blanch, and Peppino Mangravite. Before serving in the army during WWII, Chavez painted many murals in the west.

When he was demobilized from the army after WWII, he went to live in Woodstock, New York with his wife, artist Jenne Magafan. A new artistic climate developed in Woodstock after WWII. There was an influx of artists from the West and Midwest in Woodstock. Some of the these artists were Bruce Currie, Fletcher Martin, Edward Millman, Mitchell Siporin, Herman Cherry, Denny Winters, and Jenne Magafan's sister, Ethel Magafan. In 1947, the Art Students League reestablished a summer school in Woodstock, as it had left in 1922.