Autry’s Best
A new book features highlights from the permanent collection at the Autry Museum of the American West.
Anew book from the University of Oklahoma Press takes a deep look into the permanent collection at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. The museum, home to the Masters of the American West exhibition, is one of the premier Western art museums in the country and is respected for its magnificent collection that ranges from some of the earliest iterations of Western art to contemporary works by living artists.
Art of the West: Selected Works from the Autry Museum takes a thoughtful look into the museum’s rich history and collection. The book, which features more than 150 color illustrations, is edited by Amy Scott, the museum’s Chief Curator and Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator of Visual Arts, with a forward by Stephen Aron and an afterword by Brian W. Dippie.
“…[T]he Autry was founded as a museum in which art offers a means of gaining access to a larger cultural moment,” writes Scott. “Through the art of the American West, we come to know the circumstances and broader histories that continue to inform its making.”
The book examines the history of the museum and its famous founder, actor Gene Autry, and also the themes that run throughout the magnificent collection, which includes major pieces from Frederic Remington, Ernest L. Blumenschein, Eanger Irving Couse, Albert Bierstadt, John Mix Stanley, George Carlson, Howard Terpning, Frank Tenney Johnson, Maynard Dixon, N.C. Wyeth and Thomas Moran, whose 86-inch-tall Mountain of the Holy Cross has a towering presence at the museum.
In addition to Western art,
Art of the West also examines the rest of the museum’s diverse collection of materials, including Native pottery and weavings, photography, illustration, basketry, saddles, motorcycles and much more.
For more information about the book visit www.oupress.com or www.theautry.org.