Wilderness |
Western migration has been traditionally viewed as a preordained, inevitable expansion by eastern settlers into the vacant wilderness of America. For the early pilgrims and pioneers, believing they had a covenant with God to tame and cultivate wild America, it was crucial to see the West as wilderness.
However, the settlers' pristine wilderness was neither wild nor empty to the millions of Native peoples. This "wilderness" was their home; it held profound ritual and cultural value.
Artists have played significant roles in perpetuating the myth of the untamed wilderness. Early romantic depictions of majestic terrain, exotic inhabitants, and wild animals strongly influenced perceptions of the American West as a destination for adventure. |
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N. C. Wyeth
I Shall Never forget the sight. It was like a great green sea.
1918
Oil on canvas, 32" x 40"
I shall never forget the sight. It was like a great green sea was the caption for this painting when it was published to illustrate Vandemark's Folly, a novel by Herbert Quick. After being serialized in The Ladies' Home Journal, the story was published in book form in 1922
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Ogden Minton Pleissner
Lost Lake Wyoming
1940
Oil on canvas, 24" x 30"
I remember there were the biggest rainbow trout that I'd ever seen in that lake, but I could never catch one. The water was very clear, and one day a fish that looked like a whale followed my fly right up to the shore but refused to take.
-- Ogden Pleissner in The Art of Ogden M. Pleissner
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Thomas Moran
Green River
1877
Oil on canvas, 10" x 16 11/16"
Green River, in Wyoming Territory, was the first subject Thomas Moran sketched in the West. It became one of his favorites. A railway terminal was nearby, but Moran never included it in the scores of imaginative paintings and sketches he made of the dramatic landmark. Instead, he portrayed it as unsettled wilderness. Moran's use of luminous, transparent paint in oranges, pinks, azures, and golds typify his western scenes.
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Emmi Whitehorse
Water & Mineral
January 2000
Oil chalk on paper on canvas, 28" x 40 1/2"
My paintings tell the story of knowing the land over time -- of being completely, microcosmically within a place. Luminous with the ambience of light and heat, they are purposefully meditative and are to be "seen slowly." My intricate language of symbols refers to specific plants, places, people, and experiences. These images float in and out of awareness.
- Emmi Whitehorse, 1999
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Christine McHorse
Rain Bird
1999
Micaceous clay, 1/2" x 10" diameter
Rain Bird is a gently organic sculpture that seems to have a life of its own. Its form looks much like a rain drop, the very source of life in the desert. The work glistens from the micaceous clay, a material traditionally used by potters at Taos pueblo. This is the home of McHorse's grandmother-in-law and mentor, Lena Archuleta.
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Thomas Hill
Yosemite
Date unknown
Oil on canvas, 35 5/8" x 29 1/8"
Next to Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill was the most famous member of the "California School" of landscape painters. After settling in northern California, he became best known for his paintings of Yosemite. He said he painted it "not as it is, but as it ought to be."
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Alexander Proctor
The Bull Moose
1903
Bronze, 18 1/4" x 16 1/2" x 9"
Proctor was one of the earliest sculptors to portray American wildlife. He cast bronzes of animals for the Bronx Zoo and Brooklyn's Prospect Park. When President Theodore Roosevelt insisted that he sculpt two bison heads for the White House, the two men became friends. Proctor may have made The Bull Moose in tribute to Roosevelt's "Bull Moose" Party, which was active at around the time he modeled the bronze.
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Norm Akers
Elk Calling
1999
Oil on canvas, 6" x 60"
Norm Akers is an Osage and Pawnee artist who interprets his memories and traditional beliefs in large-scale oil paintings. Elk Calling shows the dramatic elk in its habitat, surrounded by personal and cultural symbols.
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Albert Bierstadt
Mount Whitney
1877
Oil on canvas, 68 7/8" x 116 5/8"
In 1859 Bierstadt went west in search of new material. He soon became foremost among "The Rocky Mountain School" of artists. Moving to California to be near his favorite scenery, he helped to establish the "California School" of landscape painters. Bierstadt portrayed the West as a place of almost supernatural wonder. By the mid-1870s he was the most popular western landscape painter in America.
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John Clymer
Time of Hunger
1975
Oil on canvas, 26" x 42"
John Clymer places the mountain lion stalking its unseen prey in a wilderness setting. There it is not a threat, and can be admired for its beauty and cunning.
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