Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2019/ No.138 i Western Art Collector

Craig Blietz’s Herd, a stunning new exhibition that features beautifully rendered cows paired with abstract images of agricultural icons, is leaving the Museum of Wisconsin Art on January 13 and traveling to the nearby Tory Folliard Gallery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. More than 20 paintings will be on view, many of them featuring cows paired with barns, corn stalks and tractors, resulting in boldly patterned compositions of shapes and colors. Blietz has worked fulltime for two years to create his Herd series. The exhibition was Museum of Wisconsin Art. The exhibition will remain on view through March 2. Prior to closing, on February 9, the gallery will host a talk with the artist and Graeme Reid, director of collections and exhibitions at the museum. The event starts at 1:30 p.m. For…

Every other year the Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, hosts a number of top artists for a group retrospective. This year’s event, which is part exhibition of old work and part sale of new work, will begin October 18 and features eight artists: Tony Angell, Clyde Aspevig, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Quang Ho, Tony Hochstetler, Jeremy Lipking, Thomas Quinn and Skip Whitcomb. The Woolaroc Retrospective Exhibit and Sale will feature a variety of opening weekend events, including an artist and patron dinner on October 18, lecture presentations on October 19 and a Sunday brunch on October 20. While a number of works will not be for sale because they are on loan from various collectors around the country, new works created specifically for the exhibition will be available…

FEBRUARY Feb. 1-25 MOUNTAIN TRAILS GALLERY Window Into the Sublime: Winter Into Spring Sedona, AZ – (928) 282-3225 www.mountaintrailssedona.com Through Feb. 3 EITELJORG MUSEUM The Reel West Indianapolis, IN – (317) 636-9378 www.eiteljorg.org Feb. 5-Oct. 20 WESTERN SPIRIT: SCOTTSDALE’S MUSEUM OF THE WEST Paul Calle’s Life of Exploration: From Mountains to the Moon Scottsdale, AZ – (480) 686-9539 www.scottsdalemuseumwest.org Through Feb. 6 MARK SUBLETTE MEDICINE MAN GALLERY Dennis Ziemienski: All Aboard! Trains in the Southwest Tucson, AZ – (800) 422-9382 www.medicinemangallery.com Through Feb. 6 MARK SUBLETTE MEDICINE MAN GALLERY Francis Livingston: Expressions in Paint Tucson, AZ – (800) 422-9382 www.medicinemangallery.com Through Feb. 6 NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM Cowboy Crossings Oklahoma City, OK – (405) 478-2250 www.nationalcowboymuseum.org Feb. 7 SCOTTSDALE GALLERY ASSOCIATION Western Week ArtWalk Scottsdale, AZ www.scottsdalegalleries.com Feb.…

In 1868, a Texas cowboy by the name of Jack Bailey hit the trail, driving an unknown number of cattle from Texas to Kansas. He was joined by a number of other riders, including two black cowboys, as well as women and children who were traveling with the company. At the end of each day, presumably within the glow of a crackling campfire, he pulled out a small journal and took stock of the trail. Sunday Aug the 30th 1868 Another Sabbath. Hope all right at home. If they are doing well it is more than we can say. Cloudy and very dark all night. Cattle a great deal of trouble. One of the coldest dampest + foggiest mornings imaginable. A severe norther up…At last came up a mountain. Can see…

There’s something inherently artistic about California. Just the name itself brings to mind images of sparkling blue coastlines, the dazzling city lights of Los Angeles and San Francisco, and the Hollywood sign—it’s a culture of easygoing beach dwellers, surfers, artists, writers, directors, actors and creators, and millions of tourists travel there each year to get a glimpse of that allure. And though the vibe differs dramatically from SoCal to NorCal, the undertones of art stay firmly rooted throughout the Golden State. A Western frontier state, much of California’s culture—especially in the southern and central regions—also reflect a great deal of Mexican and Native American culture. The Autry Museum of the American West is located in the city of Los Angeles, a metropolis of arts organizations, galleries, museums and events. The…

As soon as winter arrives, and with it the first snow, painter Michael Godfrey is immediately drawn to a Lewis Carroll passage from one of his Alice books: “I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, ‘Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.’” Winter in all its glory will be on view in a new two-artist show—Winter’s Embrace, featuring Godfrey and painter Robert Moore—opening February 18 at Trailside Galleries in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Godfrey lives and works in Maryland, which experiences noticeable shifts from season to season. “In the mid-Atlantic region we have four distinct seasons of which winter is my favorite. I…

The creation of wildlife art is rooted in passion—passion for animal life, conservation, education and an all-encompassing appreciation for the beauty and sheer existence of flora and fauna on our planet. For many talented artists, wildlife subject matter is their primary focus with each capturing the animal aesthetic in their own unique ways. The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition was established in 1982, with the first exposition held in February 1983. Since its inception, SEWE has grown into one of the largest and longest running events of its kind, bringing in more than 40,000 attendees from across the country each year, as well as hundreds of nature and wildlife artists, experts, collectors and exhibitors. Now in its 37th year, the three-day event runs from February 15 to 17 in various locations throughout…

This winter, visitors of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) have a rare opportunity to see American photographer Ansel Adams depicted in a new light amongst both his predecessors and contemporary artists his work has inspired. Running through February 24, Ansel Adams in Our Time is a collection of 200 works—nearly half of which are photographs by Adams drawn from the Lane Organization—organized chronologically yet thematically into eight sections, beginning where Adams’ own photographic journey started. Memories formed when Adams was in his youth—like when he first visited Yosemite at age 14 with a Kodak Box Brownie camera from his father—crafted him not only as a photographer, but as the man behind the lens of some of the most iconic visual representations of American landscapes. Adams’ work continues to…

Now open at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, is a new exhibition that highlights artwork from Gregory Manchess’ first fully illustrated novel. Gregory Manchess: Above the Timberline, which opened in November 2018, features 30 paintings, as well as props, archival materials, photographs and behind-the-scenes videos exploring the artist’s process. Life-sized sculptures of characters, including polar bears, will also be on display. “Gregory Manchess has masterfully painted, in bold brushstrokes, a window into a futuristic world,” says curator Jesse Kowalski. “His engaging tale contains the eternal themes of family, friendship, loss, and love, and his pictures evoke the essence of such adventure illustrators as N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, and Frank Schoonover.” The exhibition shares a title with the artist’s new book, Above the Timberline, which follows the grand tradition…

Masterpieces from one of the most important private Western art collections in the country will hit the auction block in Los Angeles on February 8, when Bonhams will be giving bidders a chance to own pieces from collector L.D. “Brink” Brinkman. The larger-than-life Texan, who supported Western art for much of his life, was an entrepreneur and philanthropist out of Kerrville, Texas. He had a number of successful ventures including in flooring distribution, a chain of pizza restaurants, breeding Brangus cattle and other businesses. He died in 2015. Brinkman’s collection is notable for both the historic works and artwork from contemporary Western painters, including many artists who he bought from directly, artists such as Howard Terpning, Joe Beeler and Olaf Wieghorst, all of whom he counted as friends. “We’re just…

Horse-drawn farm wagons were a staple of transportation for generations, evolving into the heavy, covered, Conestoga wagons that carried settlers west and were used for further generations to carry goods to market. Gustave Baumann (1881-1971) carved the blocks for his woodcut Atalaya Peak in 1925. He had moved to Santa Fe in 1919 and lived there for the rest of his life, capturing the life and the seasons of northern New Mexico in his now iconic prints. He always considered himself a craftsman and wanted to share his work with the public. Living in Indiana he developed his personal seal, an open hand over a heart—his pledge to make his work available to the public. It can be seen with his signature at the lower right of the print. Prominent…

On February 9 Settlers West Galleries in Tucson, Arizona, will host its annual American Miniatures show, which will present collectors a chance to own small works by more than 200 artists. “Our American Miniatures show has enticed collectors for over 30 years with the promise of ‘big’ paintings in small packages,” says Mike Salkowski, gallery manager. “It presents an opportunity for buyers to either branch out of the typical subject matter or styles of work in their collection, or to add more pieces by some of their favorites without overwhelming their walls by trying to squeeze in one more big painting. For our artists, the struggle of painting small is a welcome challenge, stretching their abilities as well as their creativity. The results are often spectacular, and the small jewels…

Allan Houser’s father was a cousin of Geronimo, the Chiricahua Apache leader, who, with a band of his people, was led into captivity in 1886 by the federal government. Houser (1914-1994) wrote, “I was 20 years old when I finally decided that I really wanted to paint. I had learned a great deal about my tribal customs from my father and my mother, and the more I learned the more I wanted to put it down on canvas. That’s pretty much how it started.” He attended Dorothy Dunn’s studio at the Santa Fe Indian School but was disenchanted with her restrictive teaching. His painting, Buffalo Hunt, 1952, is in the collection of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is reminiscent of the two-dimensional figures…

Excitement is building at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, where a new exhibition is being created for early 2020. The exhibition will include a site-specific, large-scale installation done in collaboration with New York conceptual artist Mark Dion. The museum has commissioned Dion to undergo 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 journeys will end with The Perilous Texas Adventures of Mark Dion, which will open at the museum in February 2020. Not only will the exhibition feature the large installation, but also works on paper, paintings, objects and archival materials from the museum. “The Amon Carter Museum of…

For the first time, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Wyoming will be exhibited in its entirety at the University of Wyoming from February 9, 2019, through March 21, 2020. The exhibition, which was gifted from Dorothy and Herbert Vogel’s expansive personal collection, is part of the couple’s Fifty Works for Fifty States program. As part of the program, the Vogels have distributed 2,500 works across the United States, with 50 works of art going to a selected institution in each state. Since 1962, the Vogels have amassed a vast collection of more than 4,000 works of contemporary art. What’s so profound about the Vogels’ collection, however, is not only its size or the artwork itself, but Dorothy and Herbert’s personal journeys as unlikely art collectors. Art…

Some people feel the winter landscape is best experienced through the window of a cozy room. Some revel in the cold and snow. Animals experience it as home. Michael Godfrey is “drawn to the high places. There is something spiritual about mountains that I find irresistible.” He observes, “A landscape artist has to have some knowledge of many disciplines (geology, chemistry, physics, architecture), to understand the world in which they are trying to create. An artist must observe with the idea that what is observed must be interpreted and distilled. For a landscape artist, it is just as important what you do not include in a work as what is eventually laid down.” In his painting Downhill Run the skier is almost incidental to his treatment of the landscape despite…

Six artists from the Cowboy Artists of America will join forces for the group exhibition Cowboy Country at Trailside Galleries in Jackson, Wyoming, this February. The show will feature the works of Mikel Donahue, Phil Epp, Bruce Greene, Bill Nebeker, Dustin Payne and Clark Kelley Price, who all have found their own voices within themes of the West through paintings and sculptures. Greene’s painting Twilight on the Sage depicts a cowboy taking a moment to observe the grandeur of the world around him. In describing the work, Greene says, “Twilight on the Sage was a result of sometime last summer that we spent in the Madison River Valley painting and fly-fishing. I couldn’t help but imagine being horseback in that grand and beautiful expanse.” Catching the Late Light Home, by…

The Masters of the American West returns for its 22nd annual exhibition and sale at the Autry Museum of the American West February 9 in Los Angeles. This year 64 artists, representing many facets of Western art, will participate in the popular show that has drawn collectors together from all around the country. “Masters in 2019 continues to expand its footprint in the world of contemporary art of the American West, a place as diverse as the artistic traditions represented throughout its long history,” says Amy Scott, the museum’s Chief Curator and Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator of Visual Arts. “Masters celebrates these histories through images and narratives that speak to the exceptional environment, cultural past and dynamic present of the American West.” Artists participating in this year’s…

The Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, opened to the public in 2003 with a collection of Western art, presidential portraits and letters, and Civil War art, inviting visitors to “See America’s Story.” Even in the beginning, the collection was larger than what could be hung on the gallery walls. Museum vaults are treasure houses of art that is periodically rotated out of the galleries, and art that has yet to be displayed. From February 16 through July 28, the museum will present Treasures from the Vault – 15 Years of Collecting at Booth Museum. The museum explains, “This exhibition will highlight items of significance that have rarely, if ever, been shown, including small study paintings, a 2000 Palm Beach voting machine and other presidential material, miniature sculptures and…

Who belongs to this place? To wh o m does this place belong? When does a place belong to you? When do you belong to a place? Belonging—and the word that hides inside in belonging: longing—sit at the heart of American landscape art. And American landscape art, it might fairly be said, lies at the heart of American art, even as the American landscape might be said to lie at the heart of the American experience. Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment—opening February 2 at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, before moving to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas—presents a wide range of American art—from Mark Catesby’s 18th-century paintings of New World flora and fauna to a 2009 photograph of plastic, feathers, and bones…