Autry National Center

Contemporary Art Helps Examine Complex Themes in the Autry’s Permanent Galleries

New displays offer contrasting views on Western landscape and wilderness, while new acquisitions enhance the diverse stories of the American West.

Los Angeles (June 3, 2009) — The Autry National Center offers a fresh focus on its permanent galleries by expanding the use of contemporary art to tell the story of the diverse people of the American West. Over the years, not only has the Autry acquired major works of historic and contemporary art for its permanent collection but it also has continued to raise support for the acquisition of art by artists of diverse backgrounds and viewpoints.

The Autry's commitment to expanding its art collection has led to the endowment of the Curator of Visual Arts position by Autry Trustee Calvin B. Gross and his wife Marilyn B. Gross, who together serve as committee members and sponsors of the Autry's annual Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale. The new position is properly filled by Autry curator Amy Scott, who has brought the role of art to the forefront of the Western story.

"The commitment on behalf of the Grosses, along with Scott's expertise, provides a solid foundation for the Autry. It serves to bring both historic and contemporary Western art and artists to the forefront as well as expand the perception of Western art into art that is made in or influenced by the American West," said John Gray, President and CEO, Autry National Center.

Los Angeles artist James Doolin's painting Primal Landscape (1998) is currently on display at the main entrance to the Autry's Romance Gallery, which focuses on the Western landscape as a vision of the romantic sublime as seen in paintings, sculptures, and popular culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Installed in the space usually occupied by Thomas Moran's Mountain of the Holy Cross, which is currently traveling, Primal Landscape offers visitors a comparison between contemporary and historic Western landscapes. Seen in conjunction with major paintings by nineteenth century artists such as Albert Bierstadt and William Keith, Doolin's Primal Landscape introduces visitors to the idea of the romantic sublime as a landscape phenomenon with both historic roots and contemporary relevance.

The Autry's Imagination Gallery is witness to the changes in popular ways of seeing and viewing landscapes. Today, some artists choose to venerate open spaces as a grand but dwindling American resource, whereas others investigate the tension between such ideals and the development or destruction of Western lands. Utilizing works from the Autry collection, a new installation of contemporary art includes Eve Drewelowe's Drifts at the Divide, Buff Elting's Where the Sea Used to Be, Keith Jacobshagen's Quonset (Rain in August), Harold Gregor's Illinois Flatscape #61, James Doolin's Bridges, and Emmi Whitehorse's Canyon Lake III, expanding the conversation about Western landscape to the urban and abstract. This selection of paintings explores changing representations of the West as a place where open spaces and urban development often exist in close proximity, landscapes that carry different meanings depending on where you live and who you are.

"It is in combining historic and contemporary perspectives on the American West that the Autry National Center can truly distinguish itself as an art collecting institution. Historic artists in many ways created a West of symbols and icons, to which we often react differently, depending on our own histories and perspectives. Contemporary artists are an important part of this conversation. They continue to inform and update the classic themes of Western art—from land use and development to the function of religion, for example. Many are also dealing with more recent topics of crucial importance to the West today, from water and immigration to tourism and suburbia," said Scott.

As part of the effort to raise the visibility of contemporary art at the Autry, the museum is in the process of raising funds to acquire two major works: Red Branch, Deborah Butterfield's monumental cast-bronze horse sculpture, and Tears of the Lord, a painting by Paul Pletka. The purchase of the Butterfield has begun with the generosity of Richard E. Brandes, L.A. Louver, James R. Parks, and an anonymous donor. In addition, the Autry's Gold Society recently voted to contribute funds toward the acquisition of Pletka's painting. The acquisition of James Doolin's Primal Landscape and Bridges is also in the planning stages.

Acquisitions in Progress

Paul Pletka (United States, born 1946)
Tears of the Lord, 2005 Oil on canvas
Loan courtesy of Paul Pletka and Nancy Benkof
LT2008-74-1

Deborah Butterfield (United States, born 1949)
Red Branch, 2007 Cast bronze
The purchase of this sculpture is made possible in part due to the generosity of Richard E. Brandes, L.A. Louver, James R. Parks, and an anonymous donor. Museum of the American West, Autry National Center
LT2007-151-1

New Installations in the Autry's Romance Gallery

James Doolin (United States, 1932–2002)
Primal Landscape, 1993 Oil on canvas
Loan courtesy of the Estate of James Doolin and Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Culver City, CA

New Installations in the Autry's Imagination Gallery

Eve Drewelowe (United States, 1899–1989)
Drifts at the Divide, 1943 Oil on canvas

Eve Drewelowe spent most of her career in Colorado, where she became known for painting the Rocky Mountains as rounded, modern shapes that pulsate with energy. Drewelowe's practice of animating the landscape in this manner contradicts many historic paintings of wilderness, which portray the Western landscape as timeless and static. Museum of the American West, Autry National Center
95.155.1

Buff Elting (United States, born 1953)
Where the Sea Used to Be, 2004 Oil on canvas
Museum of the American West, Autry National Center

Buff Elting paints Western landscapes from an aerial view that references both topography and mapmaking, and at the same time captures the changes wrought by development. Where the Sea Used to Be depicts a suburb between Boulder and Denver, placing the painting in the contemporary West, while its title suggests an ancient place and geological time. Elting's work ultimately deals with the impact of human choices on the Western landscape.

Keith Jacobshagen (United States, born 1941)
Quonset (Rain in August), 2002 Oil on canvas
Purchase made possible by Jennifer and Jim Parks and High Noon Western Americana through the 2004 Gold-level Member Acquisitions Committee
Museum of the American West, Autry National Center

Harold Gregor (United States, born 1929)
Illinois Flatscape #61, 1997 Oil on canvas
Purchase made possible by the 2004 Gold-level Member Acquisitions Committee
Museum of the American West, Autry National Center collection

James Doolin (United States, 1932–2002)
Bridges, 1989 Oil on canvas
Loan courtesy of the Estate of James Doolin and Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Culver City, CA

James Doolin's monumental painting Bridges represents the Los Angeles underpass where the 110 North and 5 North freeways meet, approximately two miles south of the Autry in Griffith Park. At this juncture, we can see also the 2 North (in the distance), the Los Angeles River, and a set of train tracks (in the foreground), making this an image of crossroads past and present.

The painting is based on several days in 1988 that the artist spent working on a small sidewalk beneath the footbridge that goes over the exit. Doolin's insistence on embedding himself in the site—a spot where few people have spent real time—links him to the expeditions and explorer artists of the nineteenth century, as does his use of a distant or majesterial viewpoint. The result is a transfer of the aesthetic conventions once used to convey sublime visions of mountainous Western landscapes to the tangled Los Angeles infrastructure. In Doolin's painting, the city comes to occupy the same artistic space as wilderness, suggesting the two are not as far apart as we might think.

Emmi Whitehorse (Diné [Navajo], born 1958)
Canyon Lake III, 2001 Oil pastel on paper, mounted on canvas
Museum of the American West, Autry National Center

Emmi Whitehorse was raised in New Mexico but also worked in New York, where she acquired a taste for modernism and the color-field painter Mark Rothko in particular. Placing a large sheet of paper on the floor, Whitehorse builds up layers of color for a luminous effect. In this way, she refers to Navajo sand painting and her own cultural background while also embracing the abstract, flat surfaces of modernist painting.

About Amy Scott, Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator of Visual Arts

Amy Scott has been with the Autry since August 2000, where she has organized more than ten exhibitions including Drawn to Yellowstone: Artists in America's First National Park, Yosemite: Art of an American Icon, and Maverick Art, which focused on the Autry's permanent art collection. Prior to joining the Autry, Ms. Scott was a curator at the Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, where she organized exhibitions and catalogues on Western American and European art. Publications authored include Nicolai Fechin: Across Two Continents, The Taos Society of Artists: Masters and Masterworks, The New Mexico Painters, and Yosemite: Art of an American Icon (University of California Press, 2006). Ms. Scott received her BA in art history from the University of Kansas and her MA in art history from the University of Missouri in Kansas City, where she worked as a curatorial assistant in the American Art Department of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. She is currently working on her doctorate at the University of California–Irvine.

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