The Rage for Cowboy Art In the Western states, prices are soaring for contemporary paintings that dφict cowboy and Indian themes. The best Western artists are now ready to storm the ramparts of the Eastern Establishment. BY JOSHUA GILDER ou can tell a successful cowboy the bend in your knee." medium-sized oil by Clark Heulings artist by the boots that line the floor Not, as you might think, to keep out went for a record $310,000, the most ever Yof his closet: snakeskin, elephant scorpions. This is purely a question of paid at auction for the work of a living ear, lizard, eel, and the aristocrat of cow­ fashion. These are "party" boots, for artist. Some grumbling was heard that boy boots, ostrich, the ones all covered wearing to occasions like the annual Jim Fowler, the Phoenix art dealer who with little black bumps where they pulled Western Heritage Sale, an auction of made the winning bid, already owned out the feathers. Gary Niblett, at 38 the Western art held every spring in the lobby some 20 Heulings and was trying to youngest member of the prestigious of the Shamrock Hilton in downtown inflate the value of his stock. ABC's Cowboy Artists of America, has his Houston. Attended by big oil money, big 20/20 was there to interview him, and boots custom-made. He pulls up his jeans cattle money, and prominent politicians one Santa Fe dealer remarked that if leg to reveal a shiny black expanse of (John Connally, a long-time enthusiast Fowler had known that he was going to sharkskin running up the length of his of Western art, is a sponsor), the sale is be on TV, he would have bid a million. calf. "It's real important,"he explains, "to held in high Texas style: Prime beef cattle Whatever Fowler's ambitions, the get the high ones that come right below and prize quarterhorses take turns on the Western art market hardly needed his auction block with paintings by the most added boost. In the last five years, prices Joshua Gilder is an associate editor ofSaturday Review. popular Western artists. Last year a for Western art have started to soar with "The Rookie Bronc Rider" (1974) by James Bama (inset): A clear-eyed chronicler of contemporary Western life. "Dust of Many Pony SoIdiers"(1981)by Howard Terpning(ins( In the tradition of Charles Russell and Frederic Remington. PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED no end in sight. At the same auction, an To some extent, the success of these sense the growth of Western art is a oil by Tom Lovell sold for $191,000 and contemporary artists is a reflection of popular movement, and it is one particu­ the year before one by John Clymer sold what Peter B. Rathbone, head of the larly tuned to the country's Volksgeist. If for $100,000. The boom is all the more American Painting Department at existing museums won't hang cowboy striking considering thai 20 years ago Sotheby Parke Bernet, calls the "explo­ art, enthusiasts will build their own. Ex- Western art had virtually no market at sive" growth of 19th-century Western Governors Connally and Dolph Briscoe all. A few isolated artists plied their art. Once extremely popular. Western art of Texas and Senator Barry Goldwater lonely trade, with no public to mention went into a long decline that lasted well of Arizona are all honorary chairmen of a and absolutely no critical recognition. into the 1960s. Frederic Remington's new museum in Kerrville, Texas, being Gordon Snidow, famous for the Coors bronze "Coming Through the Rye" (of built especially to house the work of the cowboy poster that adorns just about which only five of the 12 or so that were Cowboy Artists of America. every store in the West that sells beer, says cast are still in private hands) sold 20 that when he was starting out, there was years ago for $12,000. In 1972 it brought hen people in the West speak only one gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, $175,000, then a record price for an of Western art, they mean that handled cowboy art. Now there are American bronze. Today, Rathbone esti­ Wrealist art with Western themes more than 30, and other centers have mates, it could easily bring $500,000, and or subject matter. In the forefront of grown up in neighboring Phoenix and Remington oils have already hit the $1- Western artists are those who call them­ around the Santa Fe-Taos axis. The million mark. These prices, in turn, are selves cowboy artists, and the elite of this movement has matured to the point part of the increased popularity of all group are the members of the Cowboy where it has even begun to spawn its own American art. Rathbone points out that Artists of America. Non-members such criticism, and several magazines have his department recently passed the as Clark Heulings, whose work tends sprung up to cover the art and events: Impressionists, until then the most popu­ more toward Mexican village scenes, and Artists of the Rockies / Golden West, Art lar, in its total number of subscribers. Wilson Hurley, a painter of panoramic West, The Santa Fean, and others. Popu­ Certainly Americans in general are show­ Western landscapes, credit the C A A with lar artists can't paint fast enough to keep ing an increased interest in their heritage, opening up the Western market. The and this plays a part in the overall expan­ up with the demand for paintings that CAA was founded in Sidona, Arizona, in sion of the market. regularly sell for $30,000 to $50,000, and 1965. Five artists, gathered together at often tell of being booked two or three Contemporary Western art, however, the Oak Creek Tavern before starting out years in advance. Western artists are has grown up independently of the art on a trail ride, decided to form an associa­ learning the pleasures and perils of celeb- Establishment. Most major Eastern mu­ tion, styling their bylaws on those of the rityhood; they appear on the Merv Grif­ seums and galleries have to this day Sidona Sheriffs Posse. They outlined fin show with Burt Reynolds (an avid remained completely indifferent: An several objectives, among them "to per­ collector), go trail riding with Clint East­ exhibition of cowboy art being organized petuate the memory and culture of the wood, and party with Linda Grey of out West is having trouble finding a Old West as typified by Frederic Rem­ Dallas. Many also find themselves for the home for a planned visit to New York ington, Charles Russell, and others,"and first time in their lives in the position of City in 1983. Many critics refuse even to "to insure the authentic representation of having their taxes audited. recognize Western art as art. In a real the life of the West, as it was and as it is." "Headin' for the Barn" (1981) by Gordon Snidow (insetj: Celebrating the frontier spirit- painting people, as Remington once described it, "with the bark still on them." i^ " -^ 1 PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Niblett wears a special "CA" belt buckle "Long Cold Winter" (1981) by John Clymer (inset): big enough to sink him like a stone if he Known for his carefully researched, detailed, historical paintings. ever fell in the water. Harvey Johnson will lovingly show you his Colt six shooter, one of a limited series made by Colt especially for the Cowboy Artists. It has ivory handles and elegant gold engraving on its coal-black steel, and though it has perfect balance, it would seem a sacrilege to shoot the thing. Cowboy art, like any school of art, varies widely in quality. Five artists stand out, either for the quality of their work, the prices they command, or both: • Gordon Snidow, 44, is perhaps the best cowboy artist around today. He has a lucrative contract with Coors beer that dates back to 1979 when the company spotted his painting, "Colorado Kool- aid," a picture of a cowboy takinga break from bronco busting with a can of Coors The artists of the CAA emulate Rem­ was also felt that cowboy artists should beer in his hand. A native of the ington's and Russell's action-filled paint­ be cowboys as well as artists, so today, Southwest, Snidow now lives near the ings, blending a romantic vision of the with their membership grown to 23, the Jicarilla Apache reservation in Ruidoso, Old West with an historically accurate CAA still gets together every year for a New Mexico. In places like this there are depiction of that way of life: Every saddle week-long trail ride. still real-life cowboys outside of rodeos, girth is tied correctly, every feather in an The success of the CAA has inspired and it is their life that Snidow depicts in Indian's war bonnet is in place and of the the formation of several other artists' his excellent gouaches. Snidow avoids proper species. In Howard Terpning's associations, among them the National the criticism sometimes leveled at his col­ "Dust of Many Pony Soldiers," for in­ Association of Western Artists, the leagues—that their historical paintings stance, an anthropologist could tell by Northwest Rendezvous Group, and are derivative of Russell and Reming­ the warriors' clothing which tribe they Women Artists of the American West. ton—by painting only his contempora­ belonged to. Still, membership in the CAA remains ries, giving his paintings an immediacy and importance absent from paintings The CAA decided early on that the the most coveted: The "CA" brand after that draw their subject matter from the subject matter of cowboy artists was to be an artist's signature automatically raises past.