RE-FRAMING the AMERICAN WEST: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS ENGAGE HISTORY by © 2015 Mindy N. Besaw Submitted to the Graduate Degree Pr
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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. The goals of the contemporary artists vary greatly, but collectively they challenge the notion of a singular history and interpretation of the American West. They examine the way in which the American West was framed through history, contributing to our understanding of both the nineteenth-century images and the contemporary experience. iii Acknowledgments This dissertation has been guided and encouraged by countless individuals. My advisor, Charles Eldredge, has read multiple drafts and provided repeated encouragement that kept me going. My co-advisor, David Cateforis provided insight and direction at a key point, helping me fine-tune and focus my argument. I am thankful for insights from my third reader John Pultz, especially his good observations about photography, and for the participation of committee members Stephen Goddard and Michael Krueger. Wyomingite writer and scholar Mary Keller provided invaluable support and accountability in the alienating location of Cody, Wyoming while I was drafting chapters. She was my intellectual sounding board and stretched my thinking, especially related to indigenous presence/absence in western American art. My Cody friend and neighbor Sue Simpson Gallagher provided insightful readings of chapters and her good humor. For support from afar, I am indebted to my friend and fellow PhD candidate Loren Whittaker, who always believed in me, even when I did not. The good examples and successes of fellow KU Americanists Lara Kuykendall and Stephanie Knappe are also present in this dissertation. My professional career is intertwined with my doctoral work. I was first exposed to the art of the American West as a serious topic while working at the Denver Art Museum under the guidance of Joan Carpenter Troccoli and Ann Daley, who continue to be excellent mentors in my museum career and my academic pursuits today. At the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Bruce Eldredge, Peter Hassrick, and Emily Wilson supported my research and writing as I balanced work and academics. The McCracken Research Library staff was wonderful, especially Char Gdula who tirelessly requested volumes of books through Interlibrary Loan and library director Mary Robinson for her organization and mastery of the archives. The Buffalo Bill Center of the iv West gave me a research grant, which funded my travel to Williamstown, Massachusetts to visit Stephen Hannock’s studio. Most of all, I thank the Center of the West and past director Bob Shimp and past deputy director Bob Pickering for granting me a leave of absence to pursue my doctoral degree coursework. At Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Rod Bigelow and Margi Conrads supported my writing, while curatorial assistants Alison Demorotski and Dylan Turk kept things going when I disappeared for lengths of time around deadlines. Crystal Bridges also holds an impressive and useful library for such a new institution thanks to Catherine Peterson and Valerie Sallis. In my research travels, I thank the volunteers at the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, Texas for assistance with the Cowboy Artists of America papers; and the curatorial staff at the BMO Financial Group in Toronto for giving me access to Kent Monkman’s Casualties of Modernity installation. Importantly, I thank the artists who were generous with their time: Mark Klett and Stephen Hannock for studio tours; and telephone interviews with Tony Foster, Byron Wolfe, Bill Schenck, and Kent Monkman. Ultimately, I could not have done this without my family. My daughter Lyla often sacrificed weekend outings and activities to the dissertation, yet remained cheerful and flexible throughout the process. My parents Clark and Jan Davison always knew I could finish. My greatest thanks and appreciation, however, goes to my husband, Chuck Neustifter. Chuck has been an excellent listener and collaborator, a willing editor, and a source of strength. He kept our home and family in tact while I spent countless hours sequestered in my office, at the library, or away on research trips. Through the early years of our marriage, Chuck has had to share my attention with this dissertation and now I look forward to the next chapter in our lives. To Chuck, I dedicate this study. v Table of Contents: Abstract…………………………………………………………………………..iii Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………..iv List of Figures……………………………………………………………………vii Introduction……………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter 1: Re-imagining the West: From Memory to Postmodern Condition…..11 Chapter 2: Re-experiencing Representation in the Grand Canyon………………57 Chapter 3: Re-claiming the West: Allegory and Western Vistas………………...93 Chapter 4: Re-playing the Myth of the West…………………………………....117 Chapter 5: Re-painting History: Reversing Stereotypes in the West…………....147 Epilogue……………………………………………………………………….…178 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..182 vi List of Figures Chapter 1 1. Fred Fellows, No Easy Way Out, 1991, bronze, 42 7/8 x 27 x 15 inches. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming. 2. Frederic Remington, The Broncho Buster, 1895, bronze, 23 3/8 x 7 x 15 inches. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming. 3. Roy Andersen, Great Bird Above is Kind, ca. 1990, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches. Location Unknown. 4. Charles M. Russell, In the Enemy’s Country, 1921, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches. Denver Art Museum. 5. Cowboy Artists of America News, Volume 2, 1976, pages 1 and 2. Phoenix Art Museum. 6. Charlie Dye, Trailing them North, 1963, oil on canvas, 24 x 48 inches. Tacoma Art Museum, Haub Family Collection. 7. Left, Timothy O’Sullivan, Cañon de Chelle, walls of the Grand Cañon about 1,200 feet in height, 1873. U.S. Survey Department; right, Mark Klett for the Rephotographic Survey Project, Monument Rock, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Ariz., 1978. Collection of Mark Klett. In Klett’s intense dedication to matching the light and atmospheric conditions, Klett determined that O’Sullivan exposed his plate for the original photograph between 1:03 and 1:06 pm. 8. Left, Timothy O’Sullivan, Green River Buttes, Green River, Wyoming, 1872, U.S. Geological Survey; right, Gordon Bushaw and Mark Klett for the Rephotographic Survey Project, Castle Rock, Green River, Wyo., 1979. Collection of Mark Klett. 9. Thomas Moran, Green River, Wyoming, 1878, oil on panel, 11 ½ x 36 inches. Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. 10. Left, Timothy O'Sullivan, Tertiary Conglomerates Utah, 1869. U.S. Geological Survey; right, Rick Dingus for the Rephotographic Survey Project, Witches Rocks, Weber Valley, UT, 1978. Collection of Mark Klett. 11. Left, Timothy O’Sullivan, Quartz Mill near Virginia City, 1868. U.S. Geological Survey; right, Mark Klett for the Rephotographic Survey Project, Site of the Gould and Curry Mine, Virginia City, Nev., 1979. 12. Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy), 1989, chromogenic print, 50 x 70 inches. Metropolitan Museum of Art vii 13. Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy), 1991-1992, chromogenic print, 49 ¼ x 70 5/8 inches. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Chapter 2 14. Tony Foster, Sixteen Days Rafting the Colorado – 225.8 miles – Lee’s Ferry to Diamond Creek, 2000-2001, watercolor on paper, maps, and mixed media, 17 x 16 ½ inches each (series of sixteen). Denver Art Museum. 15. F.W. von Egloffstein, Black Cañon, for Lt. Joseph C. Ives, Report Upon the Colorado River of the West, Explored in 1857 and 1858, plate V. St. Louis Mercantile Library, University of Missouri, St. Louis. 16. Jack Hillers, Marble Pinnacle, Kanab Canyon, Arizona, 1872, albumen print, 10 x 8 inches. National Archives and Records Administration. 17. Timothy O’Sullivan, Black Cañon, Colorado River, from Camp 8, Looking Above, 1871, albumen print, 8 x 10 inches. Library of Congress. 18. Thomas Moran, Kanab Cañon, illustration for Picturesque America, volume II, 1874. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. 19. Thomas Moran, The Chasm of the Colorado, 1873-1874, oil on canvas, 84 3/8 x 144 3/4 inches. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Lent by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary. 20. Advertisement for Santa Fe Railroad, published in Fine Arts Journal, January 1909. 21. Tony Foster, Widforss Point Looking South, 1989, 22 3/4 x 37 inches. Private Collection, photo courtesy Tony Foster. 22. Gunnar Widforss, Grand Canyon of Arizona, ca.1928, watercolor, 9 x 17 inches. Collection of Doreen and David Picerne.