Window on the west : Chicago and the art of the new frontier, 1890-1940 / Judith A. Barter with contributions by Andrew J. Walker.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Barter, Judith A., 1951-

Contributor:

• Art Institute of Chicago.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Art, American--Illinois--Chicago--20th century--Exhibitions.
• Art, American--Illinois--Chicago--19th century--Exhibitions.
• Art, American.
• West (U.S.)--In art--Exhibitions.
• Illinois--Chicago.

Genre:

• Exhibition catalogs.
• Art.

Physical Description:

xv, 184 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 32 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : Art Institute of Chicago ; New York : In association with Hudson Hills Press, [2003]

Summary:

• With the Landmark World's Columbian Exposition, held in 1893, Chicago established its identity as a "Window on the West": an economic and cultural hub linking the traditions of the East with the resources of the West after the official "closure" of the frontier declared that year by Frederick Jackson Turner. During the period 1890-1940, Chicago experienced tremendous population growth, pioneered numerous technological advances, and contributed to the development of artistic modernism.
• Chicago artists looked back at an imagined, idyllic past and romantic Indian heroes, and forward to an equally utopian future in which American culture would rediscover its soul through contact with "authentic" native peoples and artistic expressions. A number of important patrons -- politicians, businessmen, museum directors -- supported these artists in their quest to depict the West and Southwest. Individuals as diverse as railway entrepreneur Edward E. Ayer; five-term mayor Carter H. Harrison, Jr.; real estate mogul and politician George F. Harding; and progressively inclined Art Institute director Daniel Catton Rich shared a desire for a uniquely American art, fostered in Chicago and featuring motifs found in the West and Southwest. The art they commissioned and collected took many forms, as seen in this publication, which accompanies an exhibition derived largely from the Art Institute's permanent collections and from local public and private collections. The broad array of media and styles presented here range from the naturalistic scupture of Frederic Remington and Hermon Atkins MacNeil, through the colorful Taos paintings of Walter Ufer and Victor Higgins, to the modernist abstractions of Georgia O'Keeffe. Window on the West provides a focused social and cultural history of the role played by Chicago artists and patrons in the evolution of a visual language for depicting the landscape and people of the American West. These works of art both reflected and influenced the nation's perspective on its land, people, and history.

Contents:

• Introduction: Window on the West: The Chicago of 1893 1
• 1 Victorian Indians: Art and Ethnography 13
• 2 Bohemia by Railroad: Antimodern Modernists 47
• 3 A "Red-Blooded Collection": George F. Harding and Frederic Remington 79
• 4 American Rhythm: The Modern West 105.

Notes:

• An exhibition organized by the Art Institute of Chicago.
• Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-177) and index.

ISBN:

0865591997

OCLC:

51900243