Creative Connections

Our current exhibit looks at different aspects of the American West, one theme of which explores Western Archetypes. As evidenced in his paintings and bronzes, artists like Frederic Remington created a cast of archetypal western heroes that he returned to again and again from the cowboy, to the brave solider, and the mountain men. One well-known western archetype is that of explorer, figures who carved out the trails west, with the most famous explorers of the American frontier being Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. These western heroes are represented in the exhibit with Charles Russell’s 1897 painting Captain William Clark [...]

One of the 4 themes in our current exhibit, Picturing the American West, highlights artworks that depict the long-standing narratives of Cowboys vs. American Indians. But as scholars have shown, the conflicts between “cowboys and Indians” are more myth than reality, and were often the product of imagination from dime store novels and popular “Westerns” of film and television. Attack on the Herd (Close Call) | Charles Schreyvogel | c. 1907 | Oil on canvas | 26.125 x 34.25 inches Many who joined the cattle drives of the late 19th century were of African, Mexican, and Indigenous descent. [...]

Our current exhibit, Picturing the American West, is a thematic installation that invites you, the viewer, to explore new contexts and perspectives on Western American Art. The artworks are grouped around four themes, one of which is Western Archetypes. This theme is largely centered around an image of Buffalo Bill Cody in Charles Russell’s 1917 painting, Buffalo Bill’s Duel with Yellowhand. Buffalo Bill's Duel With Yellowhand | Charles M. Russell | 1917 | Oil on canvas | 29.875 x 47.875 inches Buffalo Bill Cody, ca. 1875, public domain Buffalo Bill is the west personified. One story [...]

Our current exhibit, Picturing the American West, focuses on 4 different themes, one of which centers around the essential role the American bison – what is commonly referred to as buffalo – played in the lives of Native Americans. Indians Hunting Buffalo (Wild Men's Meat; Buffalo Hunt) | Charles M. Russell | 1894 | Oil on canvas | 24.125 x 36.125 inches   Wounded (The Wounded Buffalo) | Charles M. Russell | 1909 | Oil on canvas | 19.975 x 30.125 inches Historians estimate that in the late 18th century, 30 to 60 million buffalo once [...]

*The following is researched and written by Dr. Mark Thistlethwaite, retired Kay and Velma Kimbell Chair of Art History TCU School of Art* Seeing a work of art “in a different light,” as the apt title of the Sid Richardson Museum’s Winslow Homer-Frederic Remington exhibition suggests, really can change the way we perceive it. This was brought home to me when I came upon the museum’s great painting The Buffalo Runners–Big Horn Basin (1909) in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art’s recent exhibition Mythmakers: The Art of Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington. This dynamic Remington composition was installed adjacent [...]

As mentioned in a previous blog post, one of the similarities between Frederic Remington and Winslow Homer as demonstrated through our current exhibit, In a Different Light: Winslow Homer & Frederic Remington, is that both artists made their start as illustrators capturing the imagination of the American public through their creation of popular images in publications such as Harper’s Weekly, Collier’s, and Scribner’s Monthly. Cover of Collier’s Magazine with art by Frederic Remington, March 18, 1905, Public Domain How did they disseminate their illustrations on such a large scale? Through the process of printmaking. What is printmaking? Printmaking [...]

One aspect of our current exhibit In A Different Light: Winslow Homer & Frederic Remington, is the examination of the illustration career of both artists as a defining element of their success among the American public. On display is a great example of how Remington’s art was disseminated in printed form with a copy of the December 21, 1889 issue of Harper’s Weekly. Here we have a boisterous group of cowboys in revelry during the beloved Christmas holiday. “Cow-Boys Coming to Town for Christmas” | Frederic Remington (1861-1909) | 1889 | Wood Block and Magazine Print | Sid Richardson [...]

Our current exhibit, In a Different Light: Winslow Homer & Frederic Remington, features a large 1882 painting by Homer titled Two Figures by the Sea. Winslow Homer (1836-1910) | Two Figures by the Sea | 1882 | Oil on canvas | Denver Art Museum | 1935.8 This sparse composition avoids direct narrative, but simply implies the consternation of the two huddled women staring out for sign of a ship in stormy waters. One of Homer’s early dramatic confrontations between man and the sea, this painting was created during the artist’s time spent in Cullercoats, England. Cullercoats, England Homer had originally travelled to [...]

Infectious disease has always been a presence in Anglo-settled North America. Some of the earliest were dysentery and fevers in 17th-century colonial settlements. Then came about the smallpox and diphtheria of the early 18th century. And then there was the yellow fever and cholera of the late 18th and 19th centuries.[1] Emergency hospital during influenza epidemic, Camp Funston, Kansas. Emergency hospital during influenza epidemic (NCP 1603), National Museum of Health and Medicine. Public Domain. And by far one of the world's most serious natural catastrophes of the 20th century was the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. In the American [...]

The Lucas gusher at Spindletop, January 10, 1901, Original photo by John Trost On January 10, 1901, Spindletop, the famous oil field in Beaumont, Texas, “gushered” in an era of transformation for the state of Texas. The development of oil in Texas helped transform its once rural economy to one spearheaded by the petroleum industry and, likewise, steered its population from rural to urban. In 1900, only 17% of Texans lived in urban centers while 83% of the state’s population was rural. Flash forward to a little over a hundred years later in 2010, when we see those numbers flipped [...]