Rethinking Dunton
IT IS NOT AS FAR A REACH from Maine to New Mexico as one would think. Despite the thousands of miles between them, each state is known for its solitude, self-sufficiency and untamed nature, and are perhaps the reasons why a young Mainer artist, whose love of both the great outdoors and painting, could find himself at home in Taos over a century ago.
When William Herbert “Buck” Dunton permanently relocated here in 1914 he became one of the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists, though it was unlikely an affected personal ploy to be the impetus behind one of the world’s greatest art colonies. For the unassuming cowboy lurking inside him, seen around town in his boots and 10-gallon hat, it was a move that spoke to his essence.
And until his early death in 1936 Dunton remained a Taos fixture intent upon capturing the authenticity of the Old West before it disappeared.
“The West has passed – more’s the pity. In another 25 years the old-time westerner will have gone too – gone with the buffalo and the antelope. I’m going to hand down to posterity a bit of the unadulterated real thing,” he is quoted as saying.
Is there more, however, to this quiet man who cemented a legacy as one of the most influential historical Taos artists? In the inaugural presentation of “Conversations with Curators,” the Harwood Museum of Art is welcoming Betsy Fahlman, PhD, whose expertise in American art may just hold the answers or, at least, raise some provocative questions.
Join Fahlman on Wednesday, Jan. 18, at 5 p.m. when she presents her lecture, “Rethinking W. Herbert ‘Buck’ Dunton,” in the Harwood’s Arthur Bell Auditorium. The adjunct curator of American Art at the Phoenix Art Museum — who co-curated with Michael Komanecky the accompanying traveling exhibition, “William Herbert “Buck” Dunton: A Mainer Goes West” — will consider how Dunton’s work reflects both traditional ideas of gender and the “New Woman.”
“I explore that modern creature, the New Woman, in her manifestations in the American West as seen through the lens of Dunton’s work,” wrote Fahlman. “These Western women were often beautiful and stylish — as seen in his portrait of Margo Phillips Beutler — and embody many of the iconic characteristics of her sisters in the East but one situated in the dry landscapes of the West and for whom a horse is a major character.”
Gwendolyn Fernandez, Curator of Education and Public Programs for the Harwood, enthusiastically noted of the program, “As a prominent scholar of Western American art, Betsy Fahlman deftly weaves together analysis of Dunton’s work with stories of real women living in the West and characters from contemporary literature. It’s going to be a great night for scholarship.”
“The Taos Society of Artists was an immensely important group of painters. Their paintings of Taos and its surroundings really helped define some Americans’ view of the West,” noted Komanecky. “Dunton’s subjects were cowboys, guides, cowgirls, sometimes American Indians, and the nature and wildlife that are so striking around Taos,” fulfilling the artist’s purpose, one can imagine, of preserving the images of that which he feared would disappear.
Be sure, then, to make time to enjoy the exhibition, which will move to Phoenix at the end of May. Major works by Dunton will be featured, including “Mountain Man (Hombre de la Montaña)”, c.1909, from the collection of the Phoenix Art Museum, and “Ginger,” c. 1932, from the Harwood’s own collection.
The Harwood noted this special exhibition is complementary to “Outriders: Legacy of the Black Cowboy,” which is on exhibit since last October and will continue through May 7.
“‘Outriders’ unearths images of the drovers, fiddlers, cowpunchers, cattle rustlers, cooks, singers, bulldoggers, and bronc busters with African heritage in the American South,” the museum noted on its website.
Using archival photographs with historical narratives, the exhibit illustrates the lives of Black American cattle drivers from the years immediately preceding the Civil War and continuing to the turn of the twentieth century.
Contemporary works are also interspersed throughout, helping to round out the chronicle of the Black cowboy as an American icon. Between the two, visitors are sure to leave the Harwood with an expanded view of the Old West and a deeper appreciation for its relevance to the present.
“If only time could be seen whole, then you could see the past remaining intact, instead of vanishing in the rearview mirror.” (James Gleick)
JOIN BETSY FAHLMAN on Wednesday (Jan. 18) at 5 p.m. when she presents her lecture, “Rethinking W. Herbert ‘Buck’ Dunton,” in the Harwood’s Arthur Bell Auditorium. The Harwood Museum of Arts is located at 238 Ledoux Street in Taos. Tickets for “Rethinking Dunton” are $5 but free to Harwood members and students, and may be purchased online at harwoodmuseum.org. This project is supported in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts and by the New Mexico Humanities Council.