Go West! Representations of the American Frontier

About the Exhibit

January 14, 2012 – September 23, 2012

The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin presents Go West! Representations of the American Frontier, an exhibition exploring the pioneering American West as both a physical terrain and an idea deeply rooted in the American psyche. On view January 14 through October 14, 2012, the exhibition features paintings, sculptures and works on paper made in, and about, the American West by Henry Farny, Charles Russell, Maynard Dixon, and other artists from The Blanton’s celebrated C.R. Smith Collection of Art of the American West, in the largest installation of this collection in over a decade.

Works of related content from the museum’s holdings by Jerry Bywaters, Frederic Remington and others, and a selection of late nineteenth- and early twentieth- century American prints supplement the installation, along with borrowed works from the university’s Harry Ransom Center and Briscoe Center for American History.

“Go West! presents works from The Blanton’s collection by some of the most illustrious artists of the period such as Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Remington,” states Blanton director Simone Wicha. “Visitors will learn about their lives, their artistic styles, the historical moments and subjects they depict, and come away with an appreciation of the rich heritage of the great American West.”

Go West! is organized thematically and chronologically, with investigations of the country’s westward expansion in the nineteenth century, including: contested territories and the ensuing battles of the U.S. Army cavalry, representations of Native Americans, cowboys and ranchers, ideas of Manifest Destiny, the industrialization and urbanization of the land, and the ever-changing American landscape as witnessed and portrayed by artists living and working in the Western United States.

A second installment of Go West! provides a twentieth and twenty-first century response to and interpretation of the Western genre. Opening late April 2012, the presentation includes works in multiple mediums by Jeremy Blake, Ed Ruscha, Lordy Rodriquez, Luis Jimenez among others.

This exhibition is organized by the Blanton Museum of Art. Generous funding for the exhibition is provided by the T. J. Brown and C. A. Lupton Foundation and the Amon G. Carter Foundation with additional support from Mary Ann and Larry Faulkner, Ginni and Richard Mithoff, Kay M. Onstead, Dana and Gene Powell, and the Taconic Charitable Foundation.

Video: Cowboy Poetry with Joel Nelson