RE-FRAMING the AMERICAN WEST: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS ENGAGE HISTORY by © 2015 Mindy N. Besaw Submitted to the Graduate Degree Pr
RE-FRAMING THE AMERICAN WEST: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS ENGAGE HISTORY By © 2015 Mindy N. Besaw Submitted to the graduate degree program in the Kress Foundation Department of Art History and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________________ Co-chairperson, Charles C. Eldredge _______________________________ Co-chairperson, David C. Cateforis _______________________________ John Pultz ______________________________ Stephen Goddard ______________________________ Michael J. Krueger Date Defended: November 30, 2015 The Dissertation Committee for MINDY N. BESAW certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: RE-FRAMING THE AMERICAN WEST: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS ENGAGE HISTORY _______________________________ Co-chairperson, Charles C. Eldredge _______________________________ Co-chairperson, David C. Cateforis Date approved: November 30, 2015 ii Abstract This study examines contemporary artists who revisit, revise, reimagine, reclaim, and otherwise engage directly with art of the American Frontier from 1820-1920. The revision of the historic images calls attention to the myth and ideologies imbedded in the imagery. Likewise, these contemporary images are essentially a framing of western imagery informed by a system of values and interpretive strategies of the present. The re-framing of the historic West opens a dialogue that expands beyond the frame, to look at images and history from different angles. This dissertation examines twentieth- and twenty-first century artists such as the Cowboy Artists of America, Mark Klett, Tony Foster, Byron Wolfe, Stephen Hannock, Bill Schenck, and Kent Monkman alongside historic western American artists such as Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, Timothy O’Sullivan, Thomas Moran, W.R. Leigh, and Albert Bierstadt.
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