EEXHIBITION PREVIEW

T he distinctive identity of Texas harks back to 1836, when thepeople of this territory declared their independence from

Mexico and created, as its tourism bureau still boasts today, “a wholeother country.” Nine years later, Texas became the 28th state in theUnion. In your imagination, combine New England, New York, Penn-sylvania, Ohio, and Illinois: that’s the actual size of Texas, which is alsothe country’s second most populous state. Anything that big is boundto foster tall tales: Mention Texas and iconic images flash through themind faster than a rodeo rider rounding a barrel. Unfortunately, muchof what we know of Texas comes from films, books, and music. Thinkcowboy shoot-em-ups. Think Larry McMurtry novels. Think NanciGriffith crooning “I’m in a lone star state of mind ...”

Beyond these myths, in fact, is a state of architecturally originalcity skylines, world-class museums, and skillfully rendered art. Thefirst of three selling exhibitions ina series titled Texas Traditions ison view now through September4 at Heritage Auction Galleries inDallas, to be followed by one inOctober at InSight Gallery inFredericksburg, Texas, and then afinal one in November at VentanaFine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico.Curator Michael Duty, who isHeritage’s director of art of theAmerican West and has worked inthis field more than 30 years, ex-plains, “We wanted to present liv-ing Texas artists of the highest cal-iber who, as visual historians,show a genuine interest in por-traying this state.” Each of the 36artists selected is sending one ormore pieces to each venue and willattend most, if not all, of the threeopening celebrations.

A remarkable range of sub-ject matter, styles, and media is ondisplay, guaranteed to impressanyone not already familiar withTexas’s art scene. While it’s not

possible to discuss every exhibitor, it’s useful to highlight a handfulwho represent this project’s diversity and appeal.

LANDSCAPESTexas’s landscape is usually envisioned as rugged — sparsely

decorated with tumbleweeds, purple sage, and prickly pear cactus.In reality, its topography, climate, foliage, and wildlife are extremelyvaried: The east’s pine forests contrast with the west’s cactus, agave,and yucca, while the grassy plains of the north differ considerablyfrom the semi-arid brush to the south.

To paint a landscape requires the use of visual metaphor to ar-ticulate a particular moment in time when the light strikes the land ina memorable way and inspires the artist to replicate it. Those who paintnature take on the challenge of imbuing an image with the awe they

Texas Artists: In a Lone Star State of Mind

By ROSEMARY CARSTENS

GH

TALLIE MOORE (B. 1933)THREE MESAS

2008, OIL ON CANVAS, 47 X 56 IN.

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have experienced themselves. Three artists in TexasTraditions— Tallie Moore (b. 1933), Chuck Rawle (b.1945), and Nancy Bush (b. 1947) — wield the tools oftheir craft to achieve highly individual interpretationsof the West’s geography.

Moore honors the vastness, colors, and textures ofher home state’s big sky, a limitless horizon-to-horizonpatch of blue. As seen in Three Mesas, one of the manyvistas she prays will “remain for eternity,” Moore oftenplaces her horizon low and closely crops her windsweptcloud formations to emphasize the sky’s dominance.In the distance, typical afternoon squalls scour themesas, intensifying the picture’s sense of motion andvitality. Moore frequently edits out any signs of humanactivity, preferring the scene to be revealed in a totallynatural state.

Beneath the arching Western sky, water is scarcerthan gold. The land, the people, the wildlife, and the

CHUCK RAWLE (B. 1945)SILVER RIBBONS

2009, OIL ON LINEN ON BOARD, 30 X 40 IN.

NANCY BUSH (B. 1947)ASCENDING MOON

2009, OIL ON BELGIAN LINEN, 11 X 14 IN.

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livestock all revel in rain’s arrival and clusteraround every river, creek, or stream. For a Texanplein air painter such as Chuck Rawle, water bringsvitality to any scene, shapes the land, and literallyreflects the surrounding grandeur. Rawle wandersthe West regularly and can be stopped in his tracksby a scene such as that portrayed in Silver Rib-bons, which was painted near Moran, Wyoming.This showcases the aptly named Snake River asit loops through the Buffalo River Valley, shad-owed by passing clouds and backed by the dra-matic Wind Mountains. In an era when mostAmericans live in or near cities, an image like Sil-ver Ribbons reminds us of this country’s stunningnatural beauty and of just how adventurous thepioneer settlers were to move west into such for-bidding terrain.

As night falls, the moon slides into the dark-ening sky and sheds its muted glow across thelandscape, creating a mysterious, ethereal visionthat contrasts sharply with daylight’s intensity. InAscending Moon, Nancy Bush records this trans-

ROY ANDERSEN (B. 1930)BUFFALO COMANCHE

2006, OIL ON LINEN, 32 X 48 IN.

WAYNE BAIZE (B. 1943)SUNSET TRAIL

1999, OIL ON LINEN, 16 X 20 IN.

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formation by employing atmospheric middle values thatconvey a soft, dreamlike quality. She then enhances thesemeditative aspects through skillful layering of transpar-ent and opaque glazes. The results are sheer poetry, im-bued with an eloquence that resonates with anyone whorecalls such a dusky, lonely night.

THE WESTERN NARRATIVEParticipating in this season’s exhibitions are several

artists who portray the history, culture, lore, and worka-day lives of people living west of the Mississippi River, especially Texans. The trio discussed here offer a glimpseinto the broad range of figurative subjects that form theheart of Texas Traditions.

Roy Andersen (b. 1930) is best known for his vibrantdepictions of the Plains Indians’ horse culture. For thepast decade he has focused on the Comanche and Kiowa, oncerenowned for their raids into northern Mexico, as seen in Buffalo Co-manche. Andersen researches his scenes thoroughly, striving for au-thentic detail in every aspect from attire to weapons and tack. He isquick to note that his favored backdrops of dramatically illuminatedskies and cloud formations are not imagined — these are, in fact, theastonishing colors, shapes, and textures one sees above the West Texasdesert. Andersen truly loves a good story and he brings this narrativepassion to his paintings, creating a suspense that keeps the viewer won-dering, “What happened next?”

Ever since Cortés brought them to North America around 1519,horses have contributed crucially to the continent’s development by

transporting people, guiding livestock, tilling the land, and exploringterrain, not to mention providing companionship. Emblematic of theWest’s pioneering spirit, the horse features prominently in the art ofWayne Baize (b. 1943), who has used both the camera and the brushto document four decades of ranch life, always highlighting the es-sential synchronicity between land, animals, and humans. Baize skill-fully uses patterns of light, color, and contrast to draw viewers moredeeply into his compositions. In Sunset Trail, for example, we can dis-cern the two cowboys’ camaraderie as they slowly move their horsesup a dusty trail through rough terrain. Such a scene is typical for Baize,perhaps reflecting his own nostalgia for simpler times.

Beyond Native Americans, horses, and cattle, you can’t think“Texas” without cowboys. Bruce Greene (b.1953) not only paints and sculpts; he also cow-boys. Every spring he heads to the historic JARanch in Texas’s Panhandle, where he helpsbrand cattle and gains inspiration for his art.Greene feels that painting from life is criticalto capturing the energy of everyday activities,and indeed the lively, impressionistic brush-work and textured surfaces employed in suchcanvases as A Cowboy’s Commute bring hisscenes to life. Cresting a rise from the riverbelow, the men depicted here sit easily in theirsaddles, neither posed nor static. We sense im-mediately the horses’ movements beneaththem, even as we feel the ever-present west windwhipping up the low-lying grasses and dustalong the trail.

THE SINGULAR IMAGEWhile paintings of nature or figures often

allow viewers to imagine themselves in thescene, something quite different happens whenan artist zooms in to sculpt a moment, or whena still-life artist moves in close for an eye-levellook at an object or grouping. Here there is nowiggle room, no ambiguity, and an intense in-timacy can arise between viewer and artwork.

BRUCE GREENE (B. 1953)A COWBOY’S COMMUTE

2006, OIL ON LINEN, 42 X 56 IN.

JIM EPPLER (B. 1950)JACK RABBITS I AND II2009, BRONZE, LIFESIZE (RESPECTIVELY, 8 3/8 AND19 IN. HIGH)

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Three Texas Traditions exhibitors who have mastered this sense of focusare the painter-sculptor Jim Eppler (b. 1950) and painters Teresa El-liott (b. 1953) and Kyle Polzin (b. 1974).

Eppler has watched animals closely since he was a boy. Anyonewho has ever observed jackrabbits in their harsh desert habitat willimmediately recognize his genius for capturing their essence in thebronze Jack Rabbits I and II. Wily and muscular, the jack freezes in justthis manner when it senses a predator; its nose quivers and its longears twitch like antennae as it seeks to assess the danger. In a mil-lisecond, it can charge away, its powerful legs seemingly eating up theground beneath it.

No Texas story would be complete without longhorn cattle, of course.Descended from a wild breed that had adapted to the plains’ parched con-ditions, these creatures nearly became extinct in the early 1900s. For painterTeresa Elliott, longhorns are icons symbolizing the tough independenceof Texas and Texans, and portraying them has become her specialty. Herclassical training in drawing and portraiture has served her well in YoungLonghorn Bull, where Elliott’s eye for detail instantly conveys this young-ster’s formidably muscular power. In its way, this bull encapsulates theslogan “Don’t Mess with Texas”: Posed against a vast sky and nearly fea-tureless horizon, its form speaks volumes about the legendary rugged-ness of the West.

There are also inanimate objects thatepitomize the Texas lifestyle, a challengetaken on admirably by Kyle Polzin. Stilllifes are often overlooked, but, as MarkDoty notes in his meditative essay StillLife with Oysters and Lemon (2001), “Astill life is more like a poem than it is likea portrait.” In figurative works, he re-minds us, we are “concerned with the ex-perience of animation,” with the actionthat is occurring or might occur. But withstill life, we engage directly with what isright there, often something quite com-monplace. Polzin bypasses classicizedarrangements of flowers and porcelain infavor of the work-worn items used on

ranches: saddles, lariats, spurs, chili peppers, stir-rups, and quirts. In Call of the Trail, using apalette reminiscent of sepia-toned photographs,he creates a sense of years spent in the saddle:A hat shaped by sun, rain, and sweat is the focus,its brim curled by an absent hand, its crownfolded to sit well on the head. Emerging out ofdark shadow, the saddle’s patina glows, and wefeel the worn leather, the corded rope, the roughwool blanket. In paintings like this, Polzin dulyhonors the hard labors of Texas cowboys — notmerely icons, but real human beings.

A PUBLICATION, TOOThe tour of Texas Traditions this autumn is accompanied by a hand-

some publication that opens with Michael Duty’s comprehensiveoverview of Texas art from its earliest days, followed by art historianSusan Hallsten McGarry’s elegant dossiers on each of the 36 exhibitors.McGarry demonstrates how each artist has drawn on his or her personalvision of Texas to create images that honor a lifestyle and environmentfound nowhere else on earth. Dramatic, inventive, and inspired, theseartworks are sure to bring fresh energy and new perspectives to theirnew owners’ collections. n

ROSEMARY CARSTENS is a freelance author who publishes the award-winning online

magazine FEAST (FEASTofBooks.com). She is currently writing a book about the Mex-

ico City artist Annette Nancarrow, a contemporary of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.

Information: Texas Traditions is on view through September 4 at Heritage Auction Gal-

leries (1518 Slocum Street, Dallas, TX 75207, 800.872.6467, ha.com); October 1-24 at

InSight Gallery (244 West Main Street, Fredericksburg, TX 78624, 830.997.9920, in-

sightgallery.com); and November 19-28 at Ventana Fine Art (400 Canyon Road, Santa

Fe, NM 87501, 505.983.8815, ventanafineart.com). The accompanying 250-page, hard-

cover book is available for $85 from Fresco Fine Art Publications (frescobooks.com).

TERESA ELLIOTT (B. 1953)YOUNG LONGHORN BULL

2007, OIL ON CANVAS, 36 X 60 IN.

KYLE POLZIN (B. 1974)CALL OF THE TRAIL

2010, OIL ON CANVAS, 16 X 28 IN.

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