Walter Mruk (1883–1942) was an American painter who was a member of Los Cinco Pintores a group of artists who worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the early twentieth century.
Mruk was born Wladyslaw Mruk[1][2] in Buffalo, New York to parents of Polish descent. He studied at the Albright Art Institute. By 1920 he had relocated to Santa Fe, where he worked as a forest ranger, and also as a cartoonist for the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper.[3]
In 1924–1925, Mruk and fellow painter, Will Shuster travelled to Carlsbad Caverns on a painting adventure before the cave system was established as a national park. They painted in the caverns using lantern light. Mruk's work from this series was described in 1925 in the magazine, El Palacio:
Mruk's canvases are said to be imaginative to a high degree. He filled the cavern with mythical grotesques in an effort to interpret his reaction upon entering the dim lit interior. The work is accepted as a distinct achievement, although decidedly unusual, and difficult of treatment.[4]
One of Mruk's paintings from this series is housed in the Denver Art Museum.[5]
His work is held in the collections of the Denver Art Museum,[5] the Roswell Museum,[6] the New Mexico Museum of Art,[7] among other venues.