120 Great Paintings of the American West


Book Description

Cowboys, Indians, and magnificent panoramas -- colorful paintings by 43 artists include the works of Bierstadt, Catlin, and Remington. Each painting can be printed at poster size and you can play a slideshow of the images on your TV or computer.




Ed Ruscha and the Great American West


Book Description

The renowned artist Ed Ruscha was born in Nebraska, grew up in Oklahoma, and has lived and worked in Southern California since the late 1950s. Beginning in 1956, road trips across the American Southwest furnished a conceptual trove of themes and motifs that he mined throughout his career. The everyday landscapes of the West, especially as experienced from the automobileÑgas stations, billboards, building facades, parking lots, and long stretches of roadwayÑare the primary motifs of his often deadpan and instantly recognizable paintings and works on paper, as well as his influential artist books such as Twentysix Gasoline Stations and All the Buildings on the Sunset Strip. His iconic word imagesÑdeclaring Adios, Rodeo, Wheels over Indian Trails, and Honey . . . I Twisted through More Damn Traffic to Get HereÑfurther underscore a contemporary Western sensibility. RuschaÕs interest in what the real West has becomeÑand HollywoodÕs version of itÑplays out across his oeuvre. The cinematic sources of his subject matter can be seen in his silhouette pictures, which often appear to be grainy stills from old Hollywood movies. They feature images of the contemporary West, such as parking lots and swimming pools, but also of its historical past: covered wagons, buffalo, teepees, and howling coyotes. Featuring essays by Karin Breuer and D.J. Waldie, plus a fascinating interview with the artist conducted by Kerry Brougher, this stunning catalogue, produced in close collaboration with the Ruscha studio, offers the first full exploration of the painterÕs lifelong fascination with the romantic concept and modern reality of the evolving American West. Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Exhibition dates: de Young, San Francisco: July 16ÐOctober 9, 2016




The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925


Book Description

Themes of the American West have been enduringly popular, and 'The American West in Bronze' features sixty-five iconic bronzes that display a range of subjects, from portrayals of the noble Indian to rough-and-tumble scenes of rowdy cowboys to tributes to the pioneers who settled the lands west of the Mississippi. Fascinating texts offer a fresh look at the roles that artists played in creating interpretations of the "vanishing West"--Whether based on fact, fiction or something in-between. These artists, including Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington, embody a range of life experiences and artistic approaches."'The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925' is the first full-scale exhibition to explore the aesthetic and cultural impulses behind the creation of statuettes with American western themes, which have been so popular with audiences then and now. Both the exhibition and this accompanying catalogue offer a fresh look at the multifaceted roles played by these sculptors in creating three-dimensional interpretations of western life, whether based on historical fact, mythologized fiction, or most often, something in-between. Examples by such archetypal representatives of the West as Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell are complemented by the work of sculptors such as James Earle Fraser and Paul Manship, who contributed to the popularity of the American bronze statuette even though their western subjects were less frequent."--Publisher's description.




Painters and the American West


Book Description

"This book offers a tour of a collection of paintings of the American West still in private hands. The Anschutz Collection covers all the ground expected in a wide-ranging, major survey, yet still has plenty of room for surprises. Every phase in the history of American art since the 182Os is included. There are pictures of impressive quality by lesser-known artists and examples from all the major painters who have depicted the West. You'll discover works by artists such as Marsden Hartley, Childe Hassam, Jan Matulka, and John Henry Twachtman, who painted western subjects only rarely, and pictures by those whose subjects were predominantly western. The collection is particularly rich in paintings made in Taos and Santa Fe during the first half of the twentieth century, when major American artists often found inspiration and stylistic renewal in the Southwest. Among the American masters represented here are George Bellows, Albert Bierstadt, George Caleb Bingham, Ernest Blumenschein, George Catlin, Stuart Davis, Asher B. Durand, George Inness, John Marin, Alfred Jacob Miller, Thomas Moran, Georgia O'Keeffe, Frederic Remington, Charles Marion Russell, and Walter Ufer."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved




Early Rock Art of the American West


Book Description

A CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE The earliest rock art - in the Americas as elsewhere - is geometric or abstract. Until Early Rock Art in the American West, however, no book-length study has been devoted to the deep antiquity and amazing range of geometrics and the fascinating questions that arise from their ubiquity and variety. Why did they precede representational marks? What is known about their origins and functions? Why and how did humans begin to make marks, and what does this practice tell us about the early human mind? With some two hundred striking color images and discussions of chronology, dating, sites, and styles, this pioneering investigation of abstract geometrics on stone (as well as bone, ivory, and shell) explores its wide-ranging subject from the perspectives of ethology, evolutionary biology, cognitive archaeology, and the psychology of artmaking. The authors’ unique approach instills a greater respect for a largely unknown and underappreciated form of paleoart, suggesting that before humans became Homo symbolicus or even Homo religiosus, they were mark-makers - Homo aestheticus.




A Guide to the Indian Wars of the West


Book Description

A rich and detailed look at the wars that the United States conducted against its native population from 1860 to 1890 explores the fundamental circumstances of events, investigates the different responses of tribes to the conflict, and much more. Original. UP.




Scots in the North American West, 1790-1917


Book Description

"Scots trappers dominated the fur trade, often proving more loyal to clan than to trading company or nation. Relying on centuries of experience raising livestock for British markets, Scottish investors and managers became highly visible in the post-Civil War western cattle industry with thriving outfits such as the Swan Land and Cattle Company in Wyoming. They introduced new breeds to western ranching, such as the Aberdeen Angus, that remain popular today. Similarly, Scots herders dominated the western sheep industry, running herds of over 100,000 animals. Andrew Little's sheep ranch in Idaho was so famous that a letter addressed simply "Andy Little, USA" found its intended recipient.




Women Artists of the American West


Book Description

Profiles more than 150 women artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from the American West, offers fifteen interpretive essays, and includes nearly three hundred reproductions of their works.




Mormon Visual Culture and the American West


Book Description

This book explores the place of art in Latter-day Saint society during the first 50 years of the Utah settlement, beginning in 1847. Nathan Rees uncovers the critical role that images played in nineteenth-century Mormon religion, politics, and social practice. These artists not only represented, but actively participated in debates about theology, politics, race, gender, and sexuality at a time when Latter-day Saints were grappling with evolving doctrine, conflict with Native Americans, and political turmoil resulting from their practice of polygamy. The book makes an important contribution to art history, Mormon studies, American studies, and religious studies.




Re-imagining the Modern American West


Book Description

Describes changes in how the West has been seen, from a male-dominated frontier, to a region with a powerful sense of place, to a modern center of both genders, ethnic groups, and environmental interests