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Branding the American West
On View
October 29, 2016 — February 5, 2017
Location
Past Exhibition
Here is an opportunity to explore the magically lit landscapes, colorful characters, and changing times that shaped Hollywood’s mythology of the Wild West.
Western Art is a style not normally seen in an East Coast venue such as ours, and it’s proudly practiced here by the top artists of the genre. This exhibition includes celebrated artists such as Frederic Remington and N.C. Wyeth, and features members of the New Mexican Taos Society of Artists and California-based artist Maynard Dixon.
Focused on the first half of the 20th century, these 90 pieces reveal the multiple and changing brands of the American West during a complicated time of modernization, war, and racial unrest. It was a time of great change—for cowboys, for Native Americans, for the land itself—and it’s all captured here in that magical sense of light for which the region is famous.
The paintings and sculptures are juxtaposed with film clips of how the West was branded by Hollywood. That narrow view of the West as a land of violence and action contrasts sharply with dignified images of Native Americans and spectacular natural wonders carved over millions of years.
Come stand before works where the artist raced to capture a moment or a scene before it was gone forever. Come find the mid-point between myth and history, and revel in the beautiful scenery and rich heritage of the American Southwest.
The exhibition runs Oct. 29, 2016 / Feb. 5, 2017 and admission is free. For more information, see our press release.
Branding the American West: Paintings and Films, 1900-1950 is jointly organized by the Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas, and the Brigham Young University Museum of Art in Provo, Utah.
It is made possible in part by a generous grant from the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies and through the generous support of the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation.
Presentation of the exhibition and its related programs at the Chrysler Museum of Art is made possible by the Joan and Macon Brock Endowment for American Art.
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