Wells's postwar paintings responded to the angst of the Atomic Age with references to barbed wire and the transformation of landforms into weapons, while others suggested prehistoric creatures, or the petroglyphs that mark the desert landscapes of the Southwest, reminders of the creativity and fragility of former civilizations.

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Between 1947 and 1953 Wells gained a national reputation, and was included in important exhibitions in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco, along with other members of the American avant-garde, including (now) much better known artists such as Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Adolph Gottlieb, and Jackson Pollack.

Wells suffered a heart attack in the spring of 1953, and died of heart failure on November 5, 1954, ten days before his fiftieth birthday.

From 1933 to 1953, Wells was given 21 one-man exhibitions and he was included in 70 group exhibitions in every region of the country.

His works are in the collections of major museums throughout the U.S., including the Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and the Whitney Museum of Art.

After his death, one of his closest friends, the arts entrepreneur Merle Armitage, wrote to Wells's father that Cady was the only modern artist who "got under the skin of New Mexico," expressing its history and culture with a truth that spoke significantly to both his place and his time.

Prior to Stonewall, most gay artists were closeted, but they were inventive in creating codes for those in the know; after 1945 some adventurous artists developed independent networks for the distribution of works of gay art.

Patronage--the sponsorship of artists and the commissioning of works from them--has remained a significant factor in the creation of queer visual culture in the modern era.

Often overlooked in mainstream publications on the cultural history of salons is that many of the salon hostesses and attendees were lesbian, bisexual, or gay.

One of the first Jewish-American writers of his generation to write in English rather than Yiddish, Myron Brinig was also one of the first to create homosexual characters, though he remained publicly closeted all of his life.

One of the leading American composers of the twentieth century, David Diamond created music that is melodic and lyrical even as it jumps with modern energy.

Lionel H. Pries was a noted architect and artist, now primarily remembered for his teaching career at the University of Washington, which was cut short when he was arrested in a vice sting in the late 1950s.