Prix de West
The Prix de West returns to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum with more than 300 works.
Oklahoma City, OK
On June 7, works from 99 artists will be unveiled at one of the most anticipated Western events of the year during the Prix de West at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Artists will come from far and wide to offer their artistic perspectives as they converge on Oklahoma City, which is not far from the geographic center of the contiguous United States in Lebanon, Kansas. From Washington to Florida, Maine to California, Oklahoma City serves as the crossroads for Western art. And though the artists come from different places, with different backgrounds and create art in different styles and mediums, they are all united in one thing: their endless fascination with the American West.
“Our 47th annual Prix de West exhibition and sale is both a visual and social showcase of how the museum celebrates the American West through incredible art,” says museum president and CEO Natalie Shirley. “It is our honor to host famed principal artists along with their paintings and sculpture, which are the highest quality found in today’s studios, galleries and museums.”
The roster for this year’s exhibition is once again a who’s who of Western artists, from up-and-coming younger artists to veteran masters who have been painting for decades. This year’s list includes artists such as William Acheff, Bill Anton, Tom Browning, George Carlson, John Coleman, Michael Coleman, Brent Cotton, Glenn Dean, Josh Elliott, Martin Grelle, Robert Griffing, Logan Maxwell Hagege, T. Allen Lawson, Z.S. Liang, Jeremy Lipking, John Moyers, Curt Walters and many others. Three new artists will be joining the field this year: Quang Ho, Ron Kingswood and Daniel W. Pinkham.
Once again this lineup of artists will not only show the diversity of the Western art market, but the scope as well, with subjects ranging from wildlife and sporting art to portrayals of Native Americans and American cowboys. The works will be done in oil and acrylic, watercolor and graphite, bronze and stone, and many other materials. And styles range from a more traditional approach that calls back to great American painters who left their mark on the art world to super contemporary images of the West that have never been seen before.
The opening weekend begins on June 7 with a series of informative seminars meant to draw visitors in and expand their world of Western art. Seth Hopkins, executive director at the Booth Western Art Museum will kick it off with the presentation “Andy Warhol Did Western Art?”, followed by a presentation by sculptor Walter T. Matia titled “500 Years of Great Solutions in Animal Sculpture.” After a luncheon, the seminar will continue with the art panel “How Did They Think That? The Questions and Curiosities that Drive Art,” consisting of artists Greg Beecham, Randal M. Dutra, Tim Shinabarger and Tucker Smith. That is followed by an exclusive preview and cocktail reception, and the award’s dinner.
On June 8, Prix de West opens to the public, and the seminar continues with an artist talk from Mian Situ, followed by a luncheon and book-signing event. Beginning at 1 p.m. will be a series of art demonstrations in the museum’s main hall, where artists Charles Fritz, Oreland Joe, Howard Post and Kyle Sims will be showing how they create
their artwork in front of a live audience. After the demos, the museum will close for the setup of the fixed-price, by-draw sale that begins at 5 p.m., with the first draw at 6:30 p.m.
Artwork at the exhibition will include George Hallmark’s Silent Hours, a nocturne of a Spanish mission. “El Santuario de Chimayó, located north of Santa Fe, is considered to be one of the truly holy places of North America. The church was founded in 1813 by Don Bernardo Abeyta on the ground where a crucifix was found and since that day, the earth is believed to be holy,” Hallmark says. “Many still make the pilgrimage to this beautiful little church, which has undergone many small renovations over the years. The chapel is always breathtaking, but even more so on a full moon between midnight and dawn.”
Bruce Greene will be presenting several major cowboy works, including Attitude and Altitude, featuring the timeless image of a bucking horse and rider. “You don’t always know where the trigger is on a colt but for this one that swingin’ loop and the feel of the spur were just too much to deal with on what was otherwise a lovely spring morning,” Greene says of the work. “The view is pretty good up there, though, if a man isn’t too busy to enjoy it.”
Greene’s fellow Cowboy Artist of America member Tim Cox will also be bringing cowboys subject matter when he presents Morning Briefing, a detail-rich daybreak scene of five horses and riders as they prepare to embark on a day on the range. Tom Browning, another CAA member, will be showcasing his dramatic horse paintings, while Lipking will be turning his attention to sheep in Crossroads, a dramatically lit evening scene as a sheepherder rides through a dusty parade of sheep.
Wildlife master James Morgan will be bringing Rest Stop – Maggie and Mae, a work that shows two horses sharing brilliant light with a winged visitor. “A magpie shares a summer afternoon where the team of Maggie and Mae take some well-deserved down time from hours of cutting meadow hay,” Morgan
says. “I have a special connection with working draft horses. My father and grandfather farmed with horsepower, mostly hay and sugar beets.”
C. Michael Dudash, a former illustrator, will bring works that hint at larger stories, including The Water Gatherers. “In the life of the American Indians, fetching water for the village was always left up to the women and children. These ‘water gatherers’ are using the traditional buffalo bladders as well as highly valued metal buckets obtained through trade,” Dudash says. “Choosing a vertical format for the painting allowed me to place the figures in a pattern that leads the eye up the hill from fresh water to the secluded village.”
In Len Chmiel’s Seldom Scene, the landscape artist paints sunlit snow in the foreground and distant hills in shadow, which creates a striking swing from light to dark. “Yes, the location is real…with the exception that the small piece I did was a bit different. I ‘flipped’ the reference shot horizontally, remodeled and rearranged the brush and snow in the foreground,” he says. “I lightened the very dark, cloudy sky to give the whole works more volume. The upshot is the actual place itself doesn’t look like the painting. It’s translating the feel of it that I cared about.”
Dean Mitchell, one of the few watercolor artists at this year’s show, will be offering a selection of landscapes, but also a portrait. His landscapes frequently feature old, abandoned buildings or even just run-down properties that have fallen into disrepair. In Oil Country, he paints a place that is being slowly reclaimed by nature. “Standing still in the modern world out West are relics of small oil towns,” Mitchell says. “These old structures remain powerful to the testimony of the expansion of the West and its new economy.”
The Prix de West will remain on view through August 11, during which time any unsold works of art will still be offered for purchase.