Will Schuster

Will Schuster

Will Schuster paintingPainter, etcher and craftsman Will Shuster was a close friend and protege of artist John Sloan. A native of Philadelphia, Shuster immigrated to Santa Fe in 1920 and in the fall of 1921 Shuster along with Jozef Bakos, Fremont Ellis, Willard Nash and Walter Mruk, founded Los Cinco Pintores, Santa Fe's first modernist art group. The five young painters, all under thirty, considered themselves the radical young avant-garde artists of Santa Fe. In December of 1921, Los Cinco Pintores held their inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe. In what was characteristic of their work, an art critic noted that these men believe in color and are not afraid to use it. Upon entering the galleries, visitors are greeted with a great shout of color that's almost stimulating.

Shuster is especially recognized for his 1926 invention of the enormous effigy puppet, Zozobra (Old Man Gloom), which is burned each year at Santa Fe's annual Fiesta.