Timeless and Fleeting
The San Diego Museum of Art presents highlights of 19th- and 20th-century Western art from a major collection.
Visions of the West: Highlights from the Bloomberg Collection surveys a crossroads of American history—the increasing industrialization and urbanization of the country, against that of the wild, open freedom of the West. During late 19th and early 20th centuries, stories of the American West became especially exciting, even exotic, for those dwelling on the eastern side of the country. Through the many Western paintings within the diverse, rich collection of John and Toni Bloomberg, the San Diego Museum of Art presents a series of fantastic depictions of the West, both real and idealized, by such artists as Eanger Irving Couse, Nicolai Fechin, Joseph Henry Sharp, Frederic Remington, Walter Ufer, Charles M. Russell, Maynard Dixon and more.
“We wanted to look at [these paintings from the Bloomberg Collection] in the context of the Western art we have in our collection and reevaluate paintings of the West,” says Anita Feldman, deputy director of curatorial affairs and education at the San Diego Museum of Art. Toni Bloomberg has a strong presence at the San Diego Museum of Art as a board member, Feldman says, and while they’ve worked with the collection before, this is the first time the museum has borrowed Western paintings within the collection.
“It’s really interesting the artists painting at that time because it
coincides with rapid development in modern art, which these artists were rejecting,” Feldman says of the Western works being created in the late 1800s and early 1900s. “For example, Nicolai Fechin, Walter Ufer and Carl Oscar Borg were immigrants from Europe,” she says, “and Eanger Irving Couse and Joseph Henry Sharp studied in Europe, and they wanted to bring the academic European tradition of painting back to the U.S. to capture a sense of the West they felt was diminishing. It’s like a rejection of modernism and an embracing of wilderness. In the West, you have something which seems timeless and wild but is also fleeting. And I think they capture it really beautifully.”
Feldman cites paintings like Repose and Moonlight Scene by Couse as highlights in the exhibition, due mainly to the stunning depictions of lighting that the Taos Society of Artists founder implemented. “One of the things you’ll notice in his paintings in scenes by moonlight or the fireside is this very interesting, beautiful light which can be [similar] to tonalism,” says Feldman. “To give a sense of atmospheric light that is beyond just a direct representation of light, something more spiritual.”
Greasewood and Sage, by Ufer, is one of Feldman’s favorite paintings in the exhibition, and another exceptional example of the mastery of light, albeit in a daytime scene. The landscape is dominated by warm billows of sagebrush and greasewood under a cloudy sky. Two figures stand to the right side of the composition looking out at the mountainous scene before them.
Two sculptures are included in the exhibition as well, Russell’s The Bluffers and Remington’s The Rattlesnake. “It’s a very famous piece,” Feldman says of The Rattlesnake. “It’s the kind of piece you want to walk all around. It looks different from every angle. The weight of the bronze is very dynamic. The horse is very light on its feet. And then you have this incredible casting technique. The reins are so delicate, there’s so much movement in it.”
Visions of the West: Highlights from the Bloomberg Collection will be available to the public as soon as museums in California are able to reopen, and will remain on view through June 20. Check the San Diego Museum of Art’s website for updates.
“I think especially now when everybody’s been so trapped in their houses and trying to cope with the Covid fatigue, it’s really a joy to see the plays of light, of open air landscapes,” says Feldman. “Even if they are somewhat idealized, they’re so beautiful and very uplifting.”
Every year the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition reminds us of the beauty of wildlife art, as well as the immense importance of conservation. The three-day event is one of the longest running of its kind, connecting visitors with wildlife and nature through fine art, conservation education and sporting demonstrations. Artists, exhibitors and experts in wildlife and nature art from across the country flock to Charleston, South Carolina.
“Collectors can always expect extraordinary original works from SEWE artists. In any given year, it may be a singular piece or a full body of work, but there is always an artist who surprises me [with] work that you know took all of his or her talent and emotion,” says SEWE executive director John Powell. Dozens of talented artists have made their way into this year’s exposition, including Mitch Baird, Patricia Pepon, Richard Clifton, Walter Matia, Vickie Mcmillan-hayes, Jim Bortz, Eleanor Parker, Carrie Penley, Grant Hacking and Kathleen Dunphy, new to SEWE this year, along with many others. year’s featured artist is Mark Kelvin Horton, whose painting has been selected as the featured painting and subject of the official SEWE 2021 poster. “This has been an interesting and trying time for us all over the last several months...but one thing I feel certain of is that we have not and will never give up...this is the message and feeling that I seek to convey in the featured painting, Onward...even though this piece has an element of turbulent skies, there is a hopefulness and brightness that, along with the egret taking flight, portrays what I believe we all will have for the coming days.”
Jason Tako, the 2020 featured artist, brings to this year’s event a combination of wildlife, landscape and historical Native American work in oil paintings and charcoal drawings. “I’m very excited about SEWE this year!” he says. “Covid and the lockdowns have given people a