Artist Biography & Facts

Howard Behling Schleeter

Howard Schleeter was born in Buffalo, New York in 1903. He was the son of a commercial artist, and briefly studied at the Albright Art School. After serving time in the US Army during WWI he found his way to New Mexico in 1929. He would spend the rest of his life there living in Albuquerque from 1930 to 1970, with brief periods of living in Santa Fe (1958-1968) and Placitas (1970-1976).

During the 1930s when most NM artists were focused on creating traditional landscape and genre paintings, Schleeter developed his signature modern art style of painting using heavy impasto to highlight his brushstrokes and modernist techniques. This style of paint application was as dynamic as his artistic visions. His landscape paintings created with this technique have a uniqueness not found in most art of the time. His dynamic scenes of the NM environment with modernist compositions set him apart from other NM artists of the time.

Schleeter studied under Brook Willis, another local New Mexico artist, and strengthened his style of painting through the use of oil, scratchboard, engraving, watercolor, gouache and multi-media works. By the late 1940s, he was fully engaged with abstraction and primitive motifs.

In 1936 Schleeter received several commissions and worked as a muralist for the Works Progress Administration. Five realistic murals representing the West are at the Melrose Public School library in Southeast, New Mexico. The New Deal offered further commissions in Santa Fe and Clayton, New Mexico, and Washington D.C. from 1936 – 1942.

Schleeter would work on 3 – 4 paintings at a time, painting quickly and in a fully absorbed state. He painted primarily in abstraction with his interest spanning everything. Karen Clark (NMPBS Colores interview) stated “…everything he saw, he considered art…he would paint and turn (it) into something special…he could paint anything, and he did.”

He and his wife Ruthie, lived a very frugal life. They lived in a tent on a pallet, raised above the ground to avoid snakes and scorpions. He supported himself solely with the sales of his paintings: His dentist and doctor amassed fine collections of his work. If he could exchange a painting for something, he would. Schleeter said, “…if people let me alone and let me paint, I’ll be happy.” He was not a self-promotor, but a lifetime of artworks earned him acclaim. His success kept pace with his enormous output.

Further financial stability came from teaching at a Las Vegas, New Mexico, art gallery from 1938 – 1939, and in 1950, 1951, and 1954 was a professor at the University of New Mexico and was a member of the Art League of New Mexico. In 1954 he was the only artist invited from the Southwest to the prestigious Guggenheim’s Young American Painter show. Schleeter was called “an artist’s artist by Encyclopedia Britannica in 1945 and acknowledged by Peter Hurd and Jane Mabry for his substantial contributions to New Mexico’s art.

Above everything else, he cared about his art…so much so that even when he suffered from Parkinson’s, he did not give up and learned to paint left-handed, he even painted with his teeth until he died in 1976. He paid his funeral expenses with a painting…He loved art, it was his life.

Schleeter once said, “Some people paint their brushes out, others paint their hearts out.”

1936-1938 Kansas Art Institute
1936 Federal Art Project, Las Vegas, New Mexico, (teaching)
1936 A. & M. College, Las Cruces, New Mexico, (murals)
1938 Melrose High School Library, Melrose, New Mexico, (murals)
1938 Federal Arts National Tour, (solo)
1939 New Mexico State Fair, (prize)
1939 New Mexico Art League, (prize)
1940 Miners' Hospital, Batan, New Mexico, (murals)
1941-1946 Cedar City, New Mexico
1941 Awarded Fellowship, Besearch Studio, Maitland, Florida
1942 Research Studio. Maitland, Florida, (solo)
1944 Art League of New Mexico, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, (solo)
1944, 1948 Weyhe Gallery, New York, regional museum show
1945 Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (solo)
1946 De Young Museum, San Francisco, California (solo)
1946-1947 Museum of New Mexico (traveling exhibition, solo)
1947 Chicago Art Institute, "Abstract and Surrealist American Art," Chicago, Illinois, regional museum show
1950 Visiting Professor of Art, University of New Mexico, summer session
1951, 1955 Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, (prize)
1952 Internationale Graphik Vienna, Austria, regional museum show
1953 Salzburg, Austria, regional museum show
1954 Guggenheim Museum
1955 Karlsruhe Museum, Germany
1955 Stanford University (solo)
1957 New Mexico Highlands University (prize)
1958 Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center

Sources: Younger American Painters: A Selection 1954 | The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation

http://www.masterpieceonline.com/bio.php?artistId=1065&id=1C96-CDAH-6E59&name=Howard%20Schleeter, accessed July 17, 2012.

Czar, Web. “Howard Schleeter, Antsy Mcclain, George Rodrigue, Gary Kandziora.” ¡COLORES!, 1 June 2020, www.newmexicopbs.org/productions/colores/august-15-2015/

Younger American painters : a selection, [Exhibition] May 12 to July 25, 1954 : Sweeney, James Johnson : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Howard Schleeter, the son of a commercial artist, studied formally at the Albright Art School in his hometown of Buffalo, New York.  However, his studies at Albright were brief, and the artist considered himself to be primarily self-taught.  He later met Charles Lindbergh while working as an airplane mechanic.  However, he soon chose to make his living entirely as an artist, and in 1929, he traveled to New Mexico.  The following year he married, and the couple made New Mexico their permanent home.

Schleeter studied under Brooks Willis during the 1930's and worked in several mediums including gouache, watercolor, oil, scratchboard and engraving.  The Great Depression took its toll on Schleeter who occasionally found work digging ditches to make ends meet.

In 1936, his financial status greatly improved when he received the first of several commissions from the Works Progress Administration (WPA).  Though he worked primarily in abstraction, the five murals he completed for a WPA commission in the Melrose Public School library are realistic depictions of the West.  He worked on several more New Deal commissions during the years of 1936 and 1942 in locations including Santa Fe, Clayton, and Washington D.C.  During this time, Schleeter furthered his income by teaching at a Las Vegas, New Mexico, art gallery during 1938 and 1939.

In 1945, the Encyclopedia Brittanica referred to Schleeter as "an artist's artist."  He also received local attention when he became one of the first artists chosen by Peter Hurd and Jane Mabry for his significant contributions to New Mexico's art.  Schleeter taught at the University of New Mexico during 1950-1951 and 1954.

Member: Art League of New Mexico

Exhibited: Kansas Art Institute, 1936-1938; New Mexico State Fair, 1939 (prize); New Mexico Art League, 1939 (prize); Cedar City, New Mexico, 1941-1946; Philadelphia Artist Alliance, 1945 (solo); deYoung Memorial Museum, 1946; Art Institute of Chicago, 1947; Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, 1951 (purchase prize), 1955 (purchase prize); Vienna, Austria, 1952; Guggenheim Museum, 1954; Karlsruhe Museum, Germany, 1955; Stanford University, 1955 (solo); New Mexico Highlands University, 1957 (purchase prize); Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 1958; Swope Art Gallery Works Held: A&M College, New Mexico (mural); Art League of New Mexico; Cedar City Institute of Religion; Encyclopaedia Britannica; Miners Hospital, Raton, New Mexico (mural); Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe; Research Studio, Maitland, Florida; University of New Mexico

Further Reading: Artists of 20th-Century New Mexico: the Museum of Fine Arts Collection, Museum of New Mexico Press for the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, 1992.

The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West, Peggy and Harold Samuels, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1976.

Taos and Santa Fe: the Artist's Environment, 1882-1942, Van Deren Coke, University of New Mexico Press for the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, TX and the Art Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM: 1963

Treasures on New Mexico Trails: Discover New Deal Art and Architecture: Kathryn A. Flynn ed., Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, NM: 1995

Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Vol. 1. Peter Hastings Falk, Georgia Kuchen and Veronica Roessler, eds.,Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1999. 3 Vols.