Western Museum Directory
Highlights from the 2019-2020 exhibition season from museums across the country
Aperhaps unexpected highlight of the museums calendar this season is the exhibition, Warhol and the West, which was organized by the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia; the Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma, Washington; and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Based on Warhol’s 1986 Cowboys and Indians portfolio of serigraphs, the exhibition continues at the Booth through December 31, will be in Oklahoma City beginning January 31 and in Tacoma beginning July 1. It is “the first museum exhibition to fully explore Andy Warhol’s love of the West represented in his art, movies, attire, relationships and collecting.” The portfolio includes images of 14 iconic Western subjects such as Custer, Geronimo and John Wayne. Another 20th-century master who continues to astound in the 21st is David Hockney. The exhibition David Hockney’s Yosemite is at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. Hockney first visited Yosemite in 1982, producing a series of photographic collages. In 2010 and 2011 he visited the park and drew in plein air on his ipad. Both series of images will be in the exhibition, which opens October 28 and continues through April 5, 2020. Several museums are exploring deeper into the history of the West and its Hispanic roots. The Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico, has
assembled the exhibition Embroidered History: Colchas and the Stitch that Defined a Region, which continues through November 10. “Colchas are embroidered textiles or blankets whose origins have been traced as far back as the 16th century when New Mexico was New Spain, and expeditions packed with Iberian textiles were making their way up the Rio Grande Valley.” The nearby Millicent Rogers Museum will show the exhibition The Faithful through January 2020. “The devotional art of the santos in the Southwest is distinctly different from religious iconography in the rest of the world. Though a market for devotional art flourishes in this area, the santos were not originally created as art. Santos do not operate in the aesthetic realm but in the sacred. This exhibition includes devotional art of various styles to illustrate the continuing tradition and devotion of the Santero.” The Museum of Spanish Colonial Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, complements the study of faith in Paul Pletka: Converging Faiths in the New World, through October 20. The exhibition contains approximately 15 paintings that focus on Christian saints and the indigenous depictions of gods of North and South America. Paired with historical material culture, Pletka’s paintings conjure scenes from the cultures, history and religions of the American Southwest and the prehispanic cultures of the New World.” El Camino del Oro will be shown at the University of California, Irvine, Museum for California Art through January 4. The exhibition shows the history of Spanish missions through paintings that were done in the late-19th century when “artists began portraying the missions as relics of California’s romantic past that a serious effort was made to preserve and restore them.” The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is currently showing Caballeros y Vaqueros through January 5, 2020. The exhibition traces the history of the Western
cowboy “from its roots to north and west Africa, up through Spain and then over to the New World.” It focuses “on working objects as sculptural art, allowing visitors to see and learn how global traditions manifested into a unique Western visual tradition.” The Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona, has a similarly themed exhibition, Trappings of the American West, which continues through December 1. The museum and Dry Creek Arts Fellowship “present the 27th annual installment of this awardwinning exhibition of contemporary painting, photography, bronze sculpture, and exquisitely crafted gear of the working cowboy.” Another important exhibition at Desert Caballeros is Ed Mell’s Southwest: Five Decades, a retrospective of work from one of Arizona most renowned painters, which opens December 21 and continues through March 8, 2020. Women in the West is an area of growing interest from women’s roles from cowgirls to historic and contemporary artists. Georgia O’keeffe: Living Modern continues at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno through October 20. The exhibition explores her “self-crafted public persona— including her clothing and the way she posed for the camera. The exhibition expands our understanding of O’keeffe by focusing on her wardrobe, shown for the first time alongside key paintings and photographs. It confirms and explores her determination to be in charge of how the world understood her identity and artistic values.” Dorothea Lange’s America continues at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, through January 5, 2020. The museum notes, “If it is a cliché to suggest that art and suffering are often closely connected, it is nonetheless true that the Great Depression was a catalyst for a tremendous outburst of creative energy from America’s photographic community. The devastation wrought upon the country by the Depression inspired a host of socially conscious photographers to capture the many human stories of the time. The exhibition Dorothea Lange’s America presents these stories with 30 photographs by Dorothea Lange as well as 25 additional works by 11 other photographers working during those troubled times.” Dorothea Lange: Politics of Seeing opens February 14, 2020, and runs through May 24 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. The museum notes, “Through the lens of her camera, Dorothea Lange documented American life with riveting, intimate photographs that portrayed some of the most powerful moments of the 20th century. Lange was driven by the belief that seeing the effects of injustice could provoke reform and, just perhaps, change the world. From documenting the plight of Dust Bowl migrants during the Great Depression to illuminating the grim conditions of incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II, Lange’s photographs demonstrate how empathy and compassion—focused through art—can sway minds and prompt change throughout this nation’s history.” The work of a contemporary photographer, Lindsay Linton Buk, is in “an immersive experience and celebration of Wyoming’s incredible women” at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. Women in Wyoming opens October 25 and continues through August 2, 2020. Setting the Standard: The Fred Harvey Company and Its Legacy is a long-running exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of History in Santa Fe. “The Fred Harvey name and its company’s influence have been felt across New Mexico, not to mention the American West. The company and its New Mexico establishments served as the stage on which people such as Mary Colter were able to fashion an ‘authentic’ tourist experience,” which included the famed Harvey Girls who helped define hospitality in the West. The Portland Art Museum in Oregon presents Toughened to Wind and Sun: Women Photographing the Landscape through March 8, 2020. “During the early-20th century,” the museum explains, “Pictorialist photographer Anne Brigman regularly hiked and camped in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, photographing the rugged landscape with her 4-by-5-inch view camera. She later recalled, ‘I slowly found my power with the camera among the junipers and tamarack pines of the high, storm-swept altitudes.’ Toughened to Wind and Sun explores more
than a century of landscape photographs created by more than thirty women.” The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, presents The Perilous Texas Adventures of Mark Dion February 8, 2020, through May 17. “Artist Mark Dion took a series of journeys through Texas retracing the footsteps of 19th-century explorers including ornithologist and artist John James Audubon, watercolorist Sarah Ann Lillie Hardinge, architect Frederick Law Olmsted and botanist Charles Wright. The result of these trips will be a site-specific, large-scale installation created by Dion coupled with works on paper, paintings, and archival materials from the Carter’s collection” The Amon Carter is also showing Seeing in Detail: Scott and Stuart Gentling’s Birds of Texas through December 1. The Gentling brothers were known for their book, Of Birds and Texas, a boxed portfolio of 50 paintings of birds and landscapes, published in 1986. The exhibition showcases 23 of their watercolors from the museum’s collection. Audubon features in two other exhibitions, one showcasing his original prints and the other features alterations of the original prints. The Field Museum in Chicago is displaying prints from Audubon’s 3-foot portfolio Birds of America through March 29, 2020. The Field explains that Audubon’s Birds of America offers an opportunity to “learn more about the artist’s process through his personal journal and bird specimens from our collection.” The Monterey Museum of Art in California presents Penelope Gottlieb: The Invasive Plant through December 31. Gottlieb draws and paints over digital prints of Audubon images, significantly altering them. “In these paintings, Gottlieb reconsiders the iconic 19th-century imagery by binding the classic Audubon birds with tightly woven bands of invasive plant species. The images stage an invasion of this historical imagery, enacting the ravages of a contemporary ecological phenomenon wherein non-native species are introduced
into an environment and overtake the balance of its delicate ecosystem.” The Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, presents Art and the Animal: Society of Animal Artists through December 29. It is the society’s 59th annual exhibition. It will be at the the Evelyn Burrow Museum in Hanceville, Alabama, February 1 through April 15, 2020, and the Stamford Museum & Nature Center in Connecticut, May 22 through September 13, 2020. The Briscoe also presents Still in the Saddle: The Hollywood Western, 1969-1980 May 22 through September 6, 2020. The exhibition “immerses visitors in the history and artistry of the Hollywood Western between 1969 and 1980, the Western’s last great moment as a popular film genre.” The Booth Western Art Museum also delves into the moving image in the exhibition Lonesome Dove: Photographs by Bill Wittliff through February 9, 2020. Lonsome Dove was a CBS TV miniseries that began in 1989. Wittliff documented the series with his camera. The Brinton Museum in Big Horn, Wyoming, honors Wyoming philanthropist and businessman Mick Mcmurry (19462015) in an exhibition of 10 murals by Zachary Pullen. Cowboy Ethics – A Life Well Lived continues through October 20. The Brinton Museum will show The Brinton 101 from October 27 through December 22. The annual small works show features 101 artists from across the country. A number of other museums will also host their highly regarded annual exhibitions. The Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles will hold its 2020 Masters of the American West Art Exhibition and Sale on February 8 through March 22, 2020. The exhibition features paintings and sculptures by more than 60 contemporary, nationally recognized artists. The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis is showing Quest for the West through October 6. The “show and sale features 50 of the nation’s most renowned Western artists working today. Explore the history and beauty of the American West through the eyes of incredibly talented artists through these exquisite works of art.” Prix de West opens at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in June 2020. “The invitational art exhibit of over 300 Western paintings and sculptures by the finest contemporary Western artists in the nation with art seminars, receptions and awards banquet.” The Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, will host The Woolaroc Retrospective Exhibit and Sale October 18 through December 29 of this year. Two museums are celebrating anniversaries. Desert Caballeros Western Museum is showing 50 Years/50 Favorites in honor of its opening in 1969. The exhibition highlights “50 favorite works of art and artifacts throughout the year in the galleries, selected by the museum’s visitors, volunteers and staff.”
Celebrate! 90 Years at the Heard Museum opens October 19. “Signature works from the permanent collection—hopi katsinam, classic Pueblo pottery, Navajo textiles, jewelry and more—will commemorate the milestones, people, and events that have made the Heard Museum the American treasure and must-see destination it is today.” Landscape painting features in a number of exhibitions. The Denver Art Museum will show Mythmakers: The Art of Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington March 15 through June 7, 2020. The exhibition “will reveal connections between artistic themes and techniques used by acclaimed American artists Winslow Homer (1836-1910) and Frederic Remington (1861-1909) through 60 artworks.” Following its showing in Denver, the exhibition will travel to the Portland Museum of Art from July 1 through September 27 and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art from October 31 through January 24, 2021. Philip C. Curtis and the Landscape of Arizona continues at the Phoenix Art Museum through November 15, 2020. Curtis “painted surreal compositions, with figures in Victorian costumes set in the desert. Arizona’s landscapes were a rich source of inspiration for him, and while his canvases do not portray any recognizable geological features, his work may be contextualized within the work of a broad spectrum of artists who came to the state.” The Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, Montana, will host Hear the Whistle Blow! Art of the Railway, “a oneof-a-kind exhibition of railroad fine art paintings, drawings and etchings, featuring original art showing the diverse aspects of railroad subject matter as seen over the decades through the artist’s creative eye,” through December 7. The Western Sublime: Majestic Landscapes of the American West opens at the Tucson Museum of Art in Arizona on October 19 and is on view through February 9, 2020. The exhibition “examines works of art of the American West that interpret, reinvent and transform the idea of the sublime: an aesthetic ideal with an emotional or spiritual charge that instills awe or inspires fear…and seeks to bring the sublime landscape into contemporary contexts and create new conversations from different perspectives and artistic styles.” Maynard Dixon’s American West opens October 15 and continues through August 3, 2020, at Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West. “Nearly 300 artworks are featured in this landmark exhibition, as well as a large selection of historically significant studies, rare ephemera, photographs and personal objects including a re-creation of Dixon’s studio and his easel from which he painted all his studio paintings.” Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West continues By Beauty Obsessed: Gilbert Waldman Collects, which is part of its series of exhibitions aimed at helping visitors “see the West from a whole new perspective.” The exhibition continues through August 23, 2020. It includes 51 artworks by 39 artists featuring landscapes, Indigenous cultures, animals and more, organized across four geographical regions of the American West: New Mexico, Arizona, Northern Plains and the Mountain West. The Tacoma Art Museum presents Immigrant Artists and the American West through June 14, 2020. “Immigration is a topic on many peoples’ minds. With changing policies and shifting values that affect many people’s lives in our community and beyond, Immigrant Artists and the American West draws attention to how art relates to and responds to personal and political issues around immigration.” Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, presents Ansel Adams: In Our Time May 23 through September 7, 2020. “Take a trip across the American West through the lens of Ansel Adams and more than 20 contemporary photographers whose modern-day environmental concerns point directly to Adams’ legacy.”