Lawrence Calcagno was born in San Francisco in 1913 and grew up on his father's ranch near Big Sur in a remote part of California. During his formative years he was isolated from society and the conventional experiences that mold the values and images of an individual's world.

Addison Rowe Gallery is the exclusive representative for the Raymond Jonson estate.

Raymond Jonson is best known as the co-founder of the Transcendental Painters Group that was formed in Taos in 1938. Jonson settled in New Mexico in 1924 to paint the landscape. Prior to this move, he lived in Chicago and studied with his mentor B.J.O. Nordfeldt at the Chicago Art Institute. The Armory Show Exhibition of 1913, traveled to Chicago and changed Jonson’s life. This show gave him the opportunity to view first hand the work of Cezanne and Picabia. The free form of nature in stylized forms and shapes they used in their artistry broke open his view on to capture the rugged landscape of New Mexico.

Emil Bisttram was born in Hungary, near the Romanian border, in 1895. When he was 11 years old, his family immigrated to New York City. Emil grew up in the tenement buildings that had become the destination for so many Eastern European immigrant families. He was a talented artist, and after a few years began his schooling at the National Academy of Art and Design, then Cooper Union, Parsons, and The Art Student’s League.

Lumpkins moved to Santa Fe in 1935, where he met Raymond Jonson. It was through Jonson that Lumpkins became involved in 1938 with the Transcendentalist Painting Group founded by with Jonson and Emil Bisttram. These artists were committed to the transcendental philosophy that one achieved artistic fulfillment by going beyond sensical experience into spiritual realms. Lumpkins, a key figure in the Santa Fe art community, was also the pioneer of passive solar architecture and founded the Santa Fe Art Institute in 1985.