Face to Face Press Release
Rockwell Museum of Western Art
111 Cedar Street, Corning, NY 14830
Contact: Beth Manwaring â–ª 607.974.4254 â–ª manwaringb@rockwellmuseum.org
Face to Face: Portraits and the American West
CORNING, NY - The Rockwell Museum of Western Art is proud to present Face to Face: Portraits and the American West, an exhibition scheduled to open January 21, 2011 and to run through early May, 2011. The exhibition, Face to Face: Portraits and the American West includes works from the Museum's extensive permanent collection as well as items drawn from both Museum and private collections. Michael Duty, a former director of the Museum, will serve as guest curator for the upcoming exhibition. Duty had previous tenure as executive director of the Rockwell Museum of Western Art from 1983 - 1987.
Focusing on the people of the West, Face to Face: Portraits and the American West shows the West from many different perspectives, both historic and contemporary. From iconic images of early cowboys to the mysticism of Native American traditions, this exhibition shows not only the diversity of the people of the West, but also the diversity of the artists who have depicted the West - the historic, the modern, the real, and the imaginary - as the primary inspiration for their artistic endeavors. Western images from Native American artists combined, with older traditional portraits of nineteenth century western life and modern interpretations, present the American West as a mosaic of different people, different histories, and diverse expression. It is the people shown in these artworks who hold the many stories of...the West.
In the last decade of the nineteenth century, artist Joseph Henry Sharp set up a small studio at the Crow Agency in Montana and set about the task of documenting the profound changes that were occurring in the cultures of Northern Plains Indians. He did so not by painting scenes of high drama or intense action but, instead, chose to paint a series of intimate portraits of the men and women who lived on the reservations. In the space of only a few years, the way of life of these people was irrevocably and forcefully altered. They once roamed the high plains in search of vast bison herds and were when Sharp met them living on government beef issues. Their past, present, and future were etched on their faces, and Sharp captured their individual histories and personalities with sensitivity and artistic talent. "Chief White Grass, Blackfoot," is one of those portraits. Painted at the Crow Agency in 1902, the painting was one of Sharp's personal favorites. He kept it in his studio for many years away from collectors, and finally gave it to a close friend, some 40 years after it was painted.
Over a long and distinguished career, Sharp painted many portraits of Native Americans. One of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists, he is best known for his depictions of the Native cultures of Northern New Mexico but, long before he established his home and studio in Taos, he painted the Indians of the Northern Plains, not in ceremonial garb or in reconstructed scenes from their histories, but simply as they were at that time. "Chief White Grass" shows an individual who has weathered triumphs and tragedies over a long life and those stories are evident in the lines of his face.
Another sort of Native American story is told in Ed Singer's wry portrait, "Navajo Joe." Nearly a century spans the two works, one is done from an outsider's perspective, one who was acutely sensitive to Native American life but, still, the painting is an example of the sensibility of an artist looking at a culture and not a portrayal from the culture. Singer, who is a Native Ameri-can, represents a new generation of artists who portray the wide diversity of Native culture from an inside perspective. Their work is often laced with a sense of irony that turns previous stereotypes of Indian life and culture upside-down. Both of these portraits tell stories of Native life, but in very different ways.
The many stories of the American West told and seen from the wide variety of the artists who have traveled to, and lived in, the West form the heart of a new exhibition at the Rockwell Museum of Western Art in Corning, New York. The paintings, bronzes, photographs, and prints cover a wide spectrum of the historic and contemporary West. Early images such as Alfred Jacob Miller's "Crow Chief on the Lookout" and George Catlin's "Mandan Indians" tell stories of both the Native cultures they depict and the lives of the early explorer artists who ventured into the wild interior of the American continent to bring back images of a people that their eastern audiences knew little about. Those images are contrasted with paintings of a very different West, one that is marked by both traditional depictions of modern ranch life, as in the photographs of Barbara Van Cleve, Laura Wilson, and Kurt Marcus, and Gordon Snidow's stark depictions of Vietnam Veterans wandering the rail yards of western cities.
All of those depictions are centered on the people of the West, from iconic images of early cowboys, such as in Frederic Remington's "Arizona Cowboy" to Rick Bartow's "Angry Coyote," which is steeped in the mysticism of Native American traditions, but presented in a thoroughly modern way.
The exhibition shows not only the diversity of the artists who have taken the West as the primary inspiration for their artistic endeavors. Their works tell stories about their subjects but, also, about themselves and their own traditions and cultures. Donna Howell-Sickels presents large, colorful, and exuberant portraits of modern cowgirls that capture the artist's own sense of energy and joy. Her works show modern cowgirls, but the paintings also include elements of Greek and other mythologies. All spring from a postcard of rodeo cowgirls that the artist came across in her undergraduate days as an art student at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Howell-Sickels was struck by the spirit expressed in the faces of these women and, ever since, has based much of her work on that primary image.
While the exhibition contains work that depicts a wide range of the western experience, many of the items included reflect our continuing fascination with Native American culture. Paintings of Native Americans have always been a major component of art of the American West, in fact, it can be said that the first paintings that began to define the genre were images of American Indians. For many years, those images also were drawn from an outside perspective. However, in recent years and in increasing numbers, many Native Artists have chosen to present a perspective of their cultures that only can be developed from an insider's point of view. The result is a vibrant new body of work that, among many other attributes, presents Native culture not as one monolithic body, but as a multi-faceted picture of the many different tribal cultures that have flourished in North America.
These newer western images from Native American artists combine with older traditional portraits of nineteenth century western life and modern interpretations to present the American West as a mosaic of different people, different histories, and diverse expression. It is the people shown in this artwork who tell the many stories of the West, stories that these artists convey in their own unique ways.
About Michael Duty, guest curator
Currently, Michael Duty is the director of Art of the American West and Museum Services for Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas, Texas. He brings 31 years of experience in museums and historical organizations. Prior to joining Heritage, he was the executive director and CEO of the Dallas Historical Society. Prior to coming to Dallas, he was the executive director of the National Western Art Foundation in San Antonio, Texas. His museum career began at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, where he served as director of development and public relations. He went on to direct the Rockwell Museum of Western Art in Corning, New York and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana. As the founding director of the Eiteljorg Museum, Duty oversaw the construction of the 73,000-square-foot building, developed the mission and vision of the institution, and recruited and hired the museum staff. He was also one of the founders of MuseumsWest, a consortium of the leading western art and history museums in the United States and Canada. Before returning to his native Texas, he was the executive director of the California Historical Society (CHS) in San Francisco, the state's official historical agency. CHS holds one of the West's most important art collections, as well as one of the most comprehensive libraries and archives on California and western history.
Duty is a frequent lecturer on American Western Art and History. He is the author of several books on the subject, including, "Remington's West," "Southwest Realism: A New Mexico Tradition," "Frontier Legacy," "Dave McGary, American Realist in Bronze," and "Under Western Skies: The Art of Bob Pummill." His book, "The Cowboy Artists of America," won the Wrangler Award for best art book of 2003 presented by the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. He has organized more than 60 museum exhibitions on a wide variety of subjects. He has participated in art and history symposia at several institutions and universities, most recently at the annual Prix de West exhibition and symposium at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and the
C. M. Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. One of his more recent books, published in 2005, "Western Traditions: Contemporary Artists of the American West" won the award for best book on the Southwest presented at the New Mexico Book Awards in 2007. His most recent book, "Texas Traditions: Contemporary Artists in the Lone Star State," was published in August, 2010. He is currently at work on a book on landscape artist, Wilson Hurley.
Duty has been active in many areas of the museum profession. He recently served as vice president of the Texas Association of Museums (TAM). He served on the task force planning the archives, library, and collection storage facility for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D. C. Duty lives in Dallas, Texas.
About the Rockwell Museum of Western Art
Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Rockwell Museum of Western Art is located in the center of the Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York Sate and in the heart of Corning's Gaffer District. The Museum is open to the public seven days a week; hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Membership to the Museum includes yearlong free admission. For more information, please visit us online at www.rockwellmuseum.org.
The Museum is free to the public on Sundays now through April 2011. We invite you, our community, to the Museum and to be inspired by our vision, collections and programs. Kids & Teens are always FREE (19 & under).
Image Credits:
Edgar Paxson, Heinmoot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph) of the Nez Perce, 1905, watercolor on paper, 36 1/2 x 30 1/2 in. Museum purchase. Photo by Nick Williams. 87.34 F
Donna Howell Sickles, Pigs in a Blanket, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 in. Loaned by Davis & Blevins, The Main Street Gallery.
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