Painting West Texas: 35 ARTISTS/100 YEARS

Painting West Texas: 35 ARTISTS/100 YEARS

Oasis in the Big Bend Alexandre Hogue

William Reaves Fine ~Art • January 9-31, 2009 ~ 1

Observatory at Night Dennis Blagg ~2~

Painting West Texas: 35 Artists/100 Years Fridays and Saturdays, January 9-31 10:00 AM ~ 5:00 PM other times by appointment Collector Preview: Friday, January 9 Saturday, January 10 10:00 AM ~ 5:00 PM Opening Reception: Saturday, January 17 6:00 ~ 9:00 PM Artists Present Gallery Talk: Saturday, January 31, 2:00 PM Presentation by Michael R. Grauer, Curator of Art, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum

Master of the Plains Frank Reaugh

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Painting West Texas:

Yet as early as 1820, U. S. Army Major Stephen H. Long led a scientific voyage across northwest Texas. Long crossed A History of Art Making in the Texas Out-Back the prairies of today’s Nebraska and Colorado to the Rocky Mountains, then marched south along the range to the Red Michael R. Grauer, Associate Director River (then believed to be the southern border of Louisiana).

Confusing the Canadian River with the Red, the expedition Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum followed the Canadian back east into Texas. Two Philadelphia artists were included in The open plains and ancient the Long party, Samuel mountains of “Western-most” Seymour and Titian Texas have attracted artists since the Ramsey Peale. Peale’s 1830s, providing a geographic and watercolors of fauna environmental backdrop worthy are probably the earliest of artistic exploration. Those early Euro-American images adventurous artists who chose to pursue painted in West Texas. their muse painting the West Texas George Catlin environs not only found the region ripe followed. This selffor artistic exploration, but also rife with proclaimed “Painter discomfort, and even great danger. In 1847, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of the American secured much of what we now know Aborigine”, set out from as West Texas, but hostile Indians on Fort Gibson, Arkansas Ysleta, Texas Granville Bruce the Southern Plains made settlement perilous for another thirty Territory (near present-day Tulsa, Oklahoma) with a company years. Under such trying circumstances, art appreciation and art of U. S. dragoons in 1834. Catlin intended to paint portraits of making emerged gradually in this section, slowly and gingerly Indians along the way, especially “Camanchees” and “Kioways” until, as noted by Francis Battaile Fisk, “scalping fell from favor in today’s Texas Panhandle. The dragoons met parties of on the Texas frontier” after the Red River War of 1874-75. both tribes in what is now western Oklahoma, but Catlin ~4~

fell ill on the east (north) side of the Red River and did not In the spring of 1876 Lieutenant Ernest H. Ruffner, chief set foot in Texas until the 1850s. Still, he sent an assistant, engineer of the Department of the Missouri, lead a topographic Joseph Chadwick, to make sketches in West Texas proper. survey of the headwaters of the Red River in the Texas John James Audubon and his son, John Woodhouse Panhandle. The six-week survey began at Fort Elliott (near Audubon, traveled to Texas in 1837, stopping first at Mobeetie) and followed Palo Duro Canyon to the junction of Galveston Island, then on to Houston. J. W. Audubon Tierra Blanca and Palo Duro creeks, then southeast to Tule returned in 1845 and later traveled up the Rio Grande in Creek. Like many army engineers, Ruffner was a proficient 1849. In 1851 painter Henry Cheever Pratt joined John watercolorist. He completed his Red River, the oldest extant Russell Bartlett on the survey of the boundary between painting of Palo Duro Canyon, on 12 June 1876, probably the United States and Mexico and made hundreds of near the mouth of Tule Canyon. Carl Julius Adolph Hunnius, sketches, some of which he expanded into oil paintings. a civilian draftsman on the survey, kept a detailed diary of In March of 1852, Mexican War veteran and trailblazer the expedition, including some drawings of Palo Duro.2 Captain Randolph Marcy was assigned the command of a The first documented painting of West Texas by the “Dean of seventy-man expedition across the Great Plains in search of the Texas Artists,” Frank Reaugh, is his grisaille pastel Leading Horses source of the Red River. He was directed to “collect and report in Western Texas (1883). Probably painted near present-day everything that may be useful or interesting.” Marcy’s party crossed Wichita Falls, this painting presages Reaugh’s 60-year love affair a thousand miles of previously undocumented Texas and presentwith West Texas, from the Canadian to the Rio Grande. Reaugh day Oklahoma, discovering valuable mineral deposits and new began taking students with him to West Texas as early as 1890, species of mammals and reptiles. He reportedly was the first white when Charles Peter Bock and L. O. Griffith accompanied him man to find the sources of both forks of the Red River and explore to the Wichita Breaks. Nearly every year thereafter, for the next the Palo Duro Canyon. His report on the expedition, Exploration fifty years, Reaugh took students along with him on sketching of the Red River of Louisiana, In the Year 1852...With Reports on the trips to West Texas and points beyond, including New Mexico, Natural History of the Country, published in 1853 and including Colorado, Arizona, and Wyoming. His roster of students reads the first known images of Palo Duro Canyon, has become a like a “who’s who” of early Texas art. West Texas sites that Reaugh 1 classic of Western Americana. Unfortunately, the original and his “posse” painted included Double Mountain, the Davis drawings and watercolors published in Marcy’s report are lost.

Mountains, Big Bend, Santa Ellena Canyon, and Margaret’s Peak. ~5~

In 1893, accompanied with letters of introduction to pioneer cattleman Charles Goodnight as well as to the manager of the J A Ranch, Reaugh ventured into Palo Duro Canyon for the first time. On this trip, Reaugh may have been the first artist to paint and photograph the geological feature or “hoo doo” today called “The Lighthouse”.

He called this feature “The White Bull Frank Reaugh Grand Chimney.”

Reaugh probably painted Palo Duro Canyon more than any artist, exhibiting his Palo Duro paintings in Chicago as early as 1895. Writing about Reaugh’s Palo Duro Canon #7, The Chicago Record stated “In a word, [Palo Duro Canon #7] is dramatic …

The landscape, moreover, is peculiarly sympathetic making the ensemble a thing of high excellence in point of conception.”

Reaugh returned periodically to Palo Duro and nearby Tule Canyon until the 1930s, bringing students to paint the canyonlands in his converted Model-T, dubbed the Cicada. Two of his star pupils, Alexandre Hogue and Reveau Bassett, painted

in the main Palo Duro on their own, and Lucretia Donnell Coke, who may be the only surviving student of Reaugh’s sketching trips in Palo Duro Canyon, is still a working artist in Austin.

Charles Goodnight, the legendary cattleman who established the J A Ranch in lower Palo Duro, commissioned New York artist and Albert Bierstadt protégé John C. Cowles to paint his ranch and beloved Palo Duro in 1887. Cowles paintings are the earliest known oils of the Canyon and have become significant early Texas works of art and historical documents of Texas history. In the Palo Duro painting Cowles clearly shows the Bierstadt influence, exaggerating the topography for dramatic effect, as was his mentor’s wont.

After Colonel Goodnight gave the paintings to the Potter County Federation of Women (later Amarillo Federation of Women’s Clubs) in 1926 the paintings deteriorated badly. Two factors may have played a role in their deterioration: Goodnight’s use of buffalo tallow as a cleaning agent for paintings and heat from radiators at the clubhouse over which the paintings were hung. The Clubs eventually donated the badly damaged paintings to the Panhandle-Plains Museum for safe-keeping and for eventual conservation. The paintings have recently been restored as near as possible to their original grandeur pending. ~6~

While West Texas—which in Texas vernacular includes in the Canyon as cowboy and artist for some 40 years. everything west of Fort Worth--was one of the last areas of After hearing of Palo Duro Canyon from Frank Reaugh Texas settled by Anglos, it did have its fair share of indigenous while working with him in the Davis Mountains and Big Bend, artists and art schools during the first half of the twentieth Alexandre Hogue sketched the more accessible parts of Palo century. In fact, in many ways, the artists and art schools rooted Duro in 1924. A local rancher allowed Hogue to camp and in the West Texas provinces seem to have been more avant-garde sketch in Deep Canyon (still on private land) for ten days. than their counterparts in the “more civilized” parts of Texas.

Hogue completed at least eight paintings during that trip, but Among the most colorful of West Texas art only one has been located. instructors was the young Georgia O’Keeffe.

Hogue wrote an article about While teaching art at West Texas State Normal the Canyon for the Dallas College in Canyon, from 1916 to 1918, Times-Herald: “Palo Duro, the O’Keeffe spent much of her free time painting Paradise of the Texas Panhandle.

3 and drawing Palo Duro Canyon. Taos artist “(24 July 1927). In the article Victor Higgins had an exhibition at Amarillo he described the “100-foot in 1922. While there, he was commissioned by red cedars” and the “unknown local businessmen to create a major painting wonders of the valley below.” of the Palo Duro Canyon. The resulting 40 Dallas artist Reveau x 50 inch oil, Palo Duro Canyon now hangs Bassett, another wellat the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis. known Reaugh student was In Hot Pursuit Harold Bugbee With the lower Palo Duro south of his smitten by the Palo Duro ranch house near Clarendon, H. D. Bugbee (“the Charlie while participating in Reaugh sketching tours in 1930 and Russell of Texas”) began sketching and painting the Canyon 1931. Beginning in pastel and in gradually increasing size, as early as 1917. He used the Palo Duro as background Bassett painted his iconic Palo Duro image entitled The for his paintings and drawings of the J A Ranch or of Wagon three times before his monumental version was reproduced on the cover of The Cattleman in April 1950. nostalgic scenes of Comanches and Kiowas, and he worked ~7~

Under the direction of Isabel Robinson, West Texas State of moves to Dallas and then California. Mead later sketched at University sponsored the Palo Duro School of Art (PDSA) and around Fort Davis, as well as at Langtry, making studies during the summers of 1936 through 1943. The school brought he used to create oil paintings of West Texas subjects. instructors in from all over the United States to teach in the Other artists who focused on Palo Duro in the 1930s Canyon, including Texans Adele include John Eliot Brunet, A. W. Mack, Amy Jackson, Jenkins and Emma and H. D. Bugbee. Students lived in Hendricks. Jenkins tents or in stone cabins build under came to the Texas the New Deal and painted from Panhandle to sketch Coronado Lodge on the rim or at Adobe Walls down in the Canyon bottom. World in 1932. While in War II suspended the PDSA. the area he made a Dalhart resident, Anna Keener, number of paintings a protégée of Kansas Regionalist of Palo Duro Birger Sandzen, painted the Canyon. Amarillo landscape near this northwestern Art Association Rita Blanca Anna Keener Texas town. Using the heavy founder Emma impasto and stylized forms of Sandzen, Keener depicted the Hendricks toured her large Palo Duro Canyon around the canyons and arroyos of the Rita Blanca watershed. Maurice state in the mid 1930s, before moving to San Antonio.

Bernson at Canadian, Texas, painted exquisite watercolors of Farther south, Sul Ross State Teachers College may have the Canadian River and Valley near this oasis on the plains. been one of the most cutting edge and controversial art schools in Returning from San Antonio, Bay City-native Ben Carlton Texas. Although usually considered quite traditional, Elizabeth Mead set up a studio on the rim of Palo Duro Canyon, complete Keefer Boatright, who ran the art department, was extremely with tipi, about 1932. For the next fifty years, he used the Palo open-minded. When Xavier Gonzalez came on the scene in the Duro as subject and setting for his historical paintings, in spite 1930s, the school would never be the same. Under the leadership ~8~

of Gonzalez and Boatright , this Davis Mountains enclave became one of the richest artistic environments in all Texas, not just the western part of the state. Alpine and vicinity, in fact, became an important point of destination for many Texas artists.

William Lester served as a visiting professor at Sul Ross for a number of summers, and produced exceptional works of Fort Davis and the Big Bend vicinity. Everett Spruce frequented the Big Bend as well as the sand hills near Sanderson in the 1940s, creating a series based on the region. Alexandre Hogue, who had sketched from the Pecos to the Rio Grande from the early 1920s, returned to West Texas in the late 60s to begin a series of Big Bend landscapes that continued until his death in 1994. As a body of work, Hogue’s Big Bend Series represents a hallmark for West Texas imagery, and stands among the finest accomplishments of his distinguished career San Antonio’s Harry Anthony DeYoung, tutored students in the Fort Davis area during the 1930s, as did Rolla Taylor. In the 40s, Dallas Ice House Xavier Gonzales

Regionalists Jerry Bywaters, Otis Dozier, Ed Bearden, and William Lester, as well as Houston painter E. M. Schiwetz, often visited nearby Terlingua, as well as the old mercury mining town at Study Butte. Marfa became home to National Academician Frank Gervasi during the 1950s and 1960s.

Granville Bruce, along his mentor Hugo Pohl, took his first trip through West Texas in 1927 en route from San Antonio to Taos, New Mexico. Along the way, they sketched at Fort Davis and the Big Bend, the latter becoming a favorite haunt for Bruce later in his career. Later the Dallas Museum of Natural History commissioned Bruce to paint a diorama backdrop of Big Bend.

The resulting pencil sketches and oils, as well as the diorama mural itself, are among Bruce’s masterpieces.

El Paso supported its own thriving colony of practicing artists. Kate Ball, Lewis Woods Teel, Audley Dean Nicols, Jose Aceves, and Fern and Eugene Thurston were prominent among El Paso artists and exhibited in some of the Texas art exhibitions “down state” including the San Antonio Competitive Exhibitions. Teel, Nicols, Aceves, and the Thurstons in particular depicted a landscape unlike any other in Texas. With the Franklin Mountains surrounding El Paso and sites such as Hueco Tanks nearby, the El Paso area was mecca for the landscape painter. ~9~

Near San Angelo, the Christoval colony was humming by hallmarks for Texas art: Impressions of the Texas Panhandle the 1920s. Mollie Crowther, along with Ella K. Mewhinney (1977) and Watercolors of the Rio Grande (1984). and Helen King Kendall, helped found the colony in the In the 1980s, several painters who now loom large as early early 1920s. Eventually Christoval became a going concern Texas modernists began to embrace the West Texas idiom. and attracted instructors from Dallas such as Reaugh and Perhaps the artist of this group with deepest roots in West Texas Adele Brunet, as well as Will Stevens from New Orleans. is Fort Worth native Jack Boynton. His works from the early In the 1950s, have been called “metaphysical abstractions,” and often early 1950s, seem inspired in part by the West Texas landscape. By the 1980s, Fred Darge of Boynton had created “phantasmagorias” of West Texas motifs and Dallas, worked icons. Earl Staley was inspired from Palo

by Texas’ Big Bend and painted Duro down it often and adroitly. Richard to the Abilene Stout, yet another Houston region. Around modernist, has also applied the same time, his evocative abstract style to TCU professor West Texas subject matter.

McKie Trotter Fortunately, contemporary Storm Clouds Fred Darge utilized various painters continue to discover locales west of Fort Worth as sets on which to base his intriguing West Texas. For example, form of abstracted landscapes, often referred to as “Texascapes”.

Julie Bozzi,a former technical Red Dawn Jack Boyton By the 1960s and early 1970s, many artists from the illustrator, took her skills state’s urban centers made West Texas integral to their vision. to the West Texas landscape, creating intimate, meticulous For example, Michael Frary sketched and painted from the renderings reminiscent of Frank Reaugh’s earlier work. Dennis Panhandle to the mouth of the Rio Grande. These travels Blagg often chooses the varied terrain of the Big Bend area for resulted in at least two portfolio books of his watercolors, his majestic landscape paintings. His interpretations harkens ~ 10 ~

back to Texas artists trained in “old world” academic method where drawing was the foundation on which all art is based. Similarly Neo-Regionalists such Jon Flaming and Randy Bacon follow the trails into the wilds of West Texas blazed by Lone Star Regionalists such as Bywaters, Hogue, Dozier, Spruce, and Lester.

Over time, therefore, West Texas has held its attraction and intrigue as a popular painting venue for stalwart Texas painters. The various faces of this broad region and the myriad artists who have sought to capture it on canvas have resulted in a plethora of interpretations. Over the century and a half since its settlement, this section of the state has yielded a treasure trove of artistic production, with West Texas subjects among the most compelling and inspiring Texas images ever captured on canvas. In the exhibition, Painting West Texas:35 Artists/100 Years, William Reaves Fine Art conveys the sense of visual wealth and stylistic diversity that emanates from this sector of the state. This is a important show worthy of serious attention by Texas collectors and enthusiasts. It brings together a significant gathering of important Texas artists (both early and late), and offers strong examples of some of their finest West Texas renderings. Collectively these paintings capture the richness of this storied part of Texas, and surely Mr. Reaugh is smiling down on old and familiar terrain!

Between 8 & 9 Randy Bacon (Endnotes) See the New Handbook of Texas (Austin: University of Texas, 1996).

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The Hunnius diary is housed at the University of Kansas.

Most of O’Keeffe’s depictions of Palo Duro Canyon are in charcoal or watercolor. Only four oil paintings resulted from O’Keeffe’s time in Canyon, and all were formerly in public collections. O’Keeffe’s Special #21: Palo Duro Canyon was stolen from the Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico, in Santa Fe in December 2003. The other Palo Duro oils are in the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; the Milwaukee Art Museum; and Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.

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Artist Gallery

Chisos Mountains Earl Staley

West of Hunt Erik Sprohge ~ 12 ~

Anderson Ranch-Big Bend Richard Stout

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West of Austin A.D. Greer

Come On In - The Paintings Fine Don Edelman

A King and His Jester William Young

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Rig at Night Charles Shorre

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Farm Engine Carl Rice Embrey

Moonlight Caller Granville Bruce

Ysleta, Texas Granville Bruce ~ 16 ~

Untitled Roping Scene Harold Bugbee

Storm Clouds Fred Darge

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Study for Showers on Plains Ed Bearden

Morning Storm-Transpecos William ~ 18 ~ Hoey

Big Bend Earl Staley

Rain Cloud-Late Afternoon Eugene Thurston ~ 19 ~

Mountain Vectors Jack Boynton

Ghost Mountain Bill Reily ~ 20 ~

Natures Monument Chester Toney

Cliff Forms and Blue Sky Keith McIntrye

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Limestone and Cedar William Lester

West Texas Texaco #2 Jon~Flaming 22 ~

Ice House Xavier Gonzales

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Novmber Mood Ralph White

Bronson County Oasis Buck Schiwetz

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Abandoned Store-West Texas Jon Flaming

Bovina, Texas Michael Frary

Jacksboro Highway ~ 25 ~ Randy Bacon

Study-Moonlight Caller Granville Bruce

In Hot Pursuit ~Harold 26 ~ Bugbee

Texas Hill Country Alexandre Hogue

Cap Rock Country Alexandre Hogue ~ 27 ~

Early Morning Near El Paso Harris Shelton

And the Rains Came Harry Worthman ~ 28 ~

Rita Blanca Anna Keener ~ 29 ~

Red Dawn Jack Boyton

Lava Cap-Big Bend Charles Shorre ~ 30 ~

Sandstorm McKie Trotter

West Texas Highway Hiram Willams ~ 31 ~

Near Marathon, Texas Julie Bozzi

Early Moon Willaim Hoey ~ 32 ~

Between 8 & 9 Randy Bacon

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Artists

Bacon, Randy Bacon, Randy Bearden, Ed Blagg, Dennis Boynton, Jack Boynton, Jack Bozzi, Julie Bruce, Granville Bruce, Granville Bruce, Granville Bugbee, Harold Bugbee, Harold Darge, Fred Edelman, Don Embrey, Carl Rice Flaming, Jon Flaming, Jon Frary, Michael Gonzalez, Xavier Greer, A.D. Hoey, William Hoey, William Hogue, Alexandre Hogue, Alexandre

Title

Between 8 & 9 Jacksboro Highway Study for Shower on Plains Observatory at Night Mountain Vectors Red Dawn Near Marathon, Texas Moonlight Caller Study-Moonlight Caller Ysleta, Texas In Hot Pursuit Untitled Roping Scene Storm Clouds Come On In-The Painting is Fine Farm Engine West Texas Texaco #2 Abandoned Store-West Texas Bovina, Texas Ice House West of Austin Early Moon Morning Storm-Transpecos Texas Hill Country Cap Rock Country ~ 34 ~

Medium

oil/canvas oil/canvas watercolor oil/canvas acrylic/canvas acrylic/canvas oil/paper oil/canvas charcoal/paper oil/canvas pen/ink/paper oil/canvas oil/board oil/board acrylic/board oil/canvas/board oil/board watercolor/paper oil/canvas oil/canvas mixed/media acrylic/board charcoal/paper charcoal/paper

Size

18 x 72 24 x 36 14 x 21 48 x 72 30 x 30 16 x 16 11 x 14 18 x 30 14 x 24 8 x 12 12 x 17 9 x 12 18 x 24 42 x 54 14 1/2 x 22 16 x 20 29 x 38 22 x 30 30 x 40 24 x 36 17 x 23 30 x 36 7 5/8 x 10 5 1/4 x 7 5/8

Artists

Title

Medium

Hogue, Alexandre Keener, Anna Lester, William McIntyre, Keith Reaugh, Frank Reaugh, Frank Reily, Bill Schiwetz, Buck Shelton, Harris Shorre, Charles Shorre, Charles Shorre, Charles Sprohge, Erik Spruce, Everett Staley, Earl Staley, Earl Stout, Richard Thurston, Eugene Toney, Chester Trotter, McKie White, Ralph Williams, Hiram Worthman, Harry Young, William

Oasis in the Big Bend Rito Blanca Limestone and Cedar Cli Forms and Blue Sky Master of the Plains White Bull Ghost Mountain Bordon County Oasis Early Morning Near El Paso Sky Signal Lava Cap-Big Bend Rig at Night West of Hunt Night Landscape I Big Bend Chisos Mountains Anderson Ranch-Big Bend Rain Clouds-Late Afternoon Natures Monument Sandstorm November Mood West Texas Highway And the Rains Came A King and His Jester

pastel oil/board oil/masonite oil/board pastel pastel casein/paper pen/ink oil/board acrylic/canvas watercolor oil/board acrylic/board oil/masonite oil/canvas oil/canvas oil/canvas oil/board oil/board oil/canvas oil/board oil/canvas oil/canvas acrylic/board ~ 35 ~

Size

14 1/2 x 21 17 x 33 24 x 30 24 x 48 4x9 4x9 12 x 16 11 1/3 x 16 3/4 24 x 32 27 x 23 15 x 22 1/4 24 x 16 22 x 28 16 5/8 x 23 39 x 47 36 x 55 18 x 24 24 x 32 18 x 33 25 x 48 24 x 32 20 x 24 32 x 26 24 x 36

Night Landscape I Everett Spruce WILLIAM REAVES FINE ART • 2313 BRUN ST. • HOUSTON, TX 77019 • WWW.REAVESART.COM ~ 36 ~