The Virtual West
Masters of the American West returns to Los Angeles with expanded online offerings for collectors.
More than 60 of the top Western artists in the country will have new work available at the Masters of the American West exhibition starting on February 27 at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. The show is one of the most important museum exhibitions of the year, and this year’s show is expected to once again speak to the quality of artists, the diversity of talent and the exceptional level of storytelling that permeates within Western art.
This will be the first Masters, and hopefully the last, held during the ongoing pandemic— last year’s show missed the first Covid wave by a matter of weeks—so the show organizers have had to make some changes to protect museum visitors, patrons, staff, collectors and artists. Much of the exhibition will take place virtually through the Autry’s website. The art will still be displayed within the Autry’s Masters gallery, but due to ongoing shutdowns in California, in-person viewing may not be available. But virtual viewing, bidding and purchasing will still take place, including on March 13, when the by-draw sale is held.
“We feel very strongly about this show, even amid this very strange year we’ve experienced. Shows like this feed off dynamic audience participation, so we’re sad it has to be this way, but it really is going to be a strong body of work from a really strong group of artists,” says Amy Scott, the Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator of Visual Arts at the museum. “We are planning on having a series of events that will give our audience direct access to these artists. In addition, we still will have the physical installation, which will allow us to bring VIPS and other guests through to see the work. We certainly recognize that people want to see the works in person, and see the textures of the canvases, and see 360 degrees around the bronzes. Works just come across very different in person.”
Artists participating at this year’s exhibition include Tony Abeyta, William Acheff, Bill Anton, Thomas Blackshear II, Eric Bowman, George Carlson, G. Russell Case, Tim Cherry, Len Chmiel, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Oreland Joe, Mark Maggiori, Ed Mell, Dean Mitchell, James Morgan, Bill Nebeker, Kyle Polzin, Howard Post, Kevin Red Star, Grant Redden, Roseta Santiago, Billy Schenck, Sandy Scott, Tim Shinabarger, Matt Smith, Tim Solliday, Jim Wilcox and many others. The show will also feature several family pairings: sisters Autumn Borts-medlock and Tammy Garcia, Michael Coleman and his son Nicholas Coleman, husband-and-wife painters John Moyers and Terri Kelly Moyers, Joann Peralta and her daughter Brittany Weistling, and Daniel Smith and his son Adam Smith.
One artist who will be debuting new work is New Mexico modernist Kim Wiggins, who will be bringing a recent entry for his Goodnight/ Loving Trail series. The work is Frank Chisum – Wild West Icon, a 60-by-40-inch oil showing one of the great American cowboys. Chisum was born a slave and was given the name Benjamin Franklin Daley. He was later bought by the cattle