Background
Agnes was born the youngest of two daughters. Her sister, Anita, was 10 years old when Agnes was born in Greenwich Village, New York City.
Agnes was born the youngest of two daughters. Her sister, Anita, was 10 years old when Agnes was born in Greenwich Village, New York City.
In 1927 she spent several weeks in a studio in Paris where she studied lithography at the École des Beaux-Arts before returning to New York City to rent her own studio in Lower Manhattan.
As part of her studies, she took a life drawing course taught by Leon Kroll. During her studies she earned multiple awards for her work, and after graduating she moved in with her terminally ill father. Secretariat on distinguishing herself as both an artist and dancer, she spent her nights dancing the chorus line with writer Caroline Singer.
Her first exhibition was held at Dudensing Gallery with fellow female artists Jo Cantine and Jean Slusser and received a review in the New York Times.
She continued to find success as an artist and in 1928 gained representation from Cooperstown Art Association. Commissions for her work, including a print for a United Fruit Company executive, allowed her to travel to Europe, Jamaica, and Haiti.
The Great Depression crashed the art market which led Ferargil Gallery to request Anges to paint pictures of widely known public figures in hopes to glean buyers. She received critical praise for her work on these and other portraits, though the art market would not recover for years to come.
Upon returning to the United States, she began work on her most famous piece, Skating in Central Park, under employment from the Public Works of Art Project.
The work"s success led to further employment under the Federal Art Project, including small lithographic editions and mural work. Her mural Fruits of the Land (1941) is located in the post office in Laurinburg, North Carolina. Her husband"s health prompted the couple to relocate to where Agnes added Southwestern landscape painting to her repertoire.
Despite the hardships, she continued to take commissions for portraits and murals, and after 22 years in Santa Fe Agnes set out to find a new home.
This was in part a result of her disappointment in being relegated to the status of "Artist". Tait once said "If people want to think of me as a Santa Fe artist, well--let them think anything they want." After spending time in Italy, Ireland, and Florida, she returned to Santa Fe to live out the rest of her life.
Her work remains in collections such as the Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library, among many others