On view in San Antonio through January 19, 2025, Storytellers: Narrative Art And The West opens a window onto the rich history, culture, and landscapes of the Southwest.
“Like music, art is a universal language that can communicate stories, moods, and human experiences across time, culture, and language barriers through the use of iconography and visual dialogue.” So says Jason Kirkland, director of exhibitions, collections, and education at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, where the point is captivatingly proven by the exhibition Storytellers: Narrative Art and the West on view through January 19.
Pictographs, paintings, and other forms of visual art have long been powerful tools for storytelling, and this show puts them to effective use in the narrative of the Southwest from the early 20th century to today.
The exhibition features the sculpture art of Navajo artist Ed Natiya.
Featuring more than 70 remarkable works curated from the prestigious collections of the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, the Briscoe Western Art Museum, and private lenders, the Storytellers exhibition explores the many ways artists have told stories about the Southwest in their art, including religious, migratory, historical, and rural subjects.
“Narrative art tells a story. It can illustrate historic events or bring the imagination to life. The traditions of storytelling in the Southwest go back to ancient times and the Indigenous populations of the region,” says Liz Jackson, president and CEO of the Briscoe Western Art Museum. “From the simple carved forms of Helen Cordero to the narrative realism of Martin Grelle and Navajo artist Ed Natiya, the exhibition celebrates the intricate tapestry of the American Southwest’s artistic heritage.”
Zuni Pueblo by Henry Balink.
There are illustrations of historic events such as Diego Romero’s image of the Pueblo Revolt, paintings of local religious ceremonies such as William Penhallow Henderson’s Holy Week in New Mexico, and ruminations on spiritual traditions as in Partocinio Barela’s Last Supper, as well as reflections on modern art and iconic images of the West inspired by pop culture, including Andy Warhol’s Kachina Dolls and Billy Schenck’s Cliff.
The art and artists reflect the region’s complex and evolving history and culture, as evidenced by the work of renowned artists like Fritz Scholder, Gerald Cassidy, Allan Houser, and Henry Balink, who bring diverse perspectives on cowboy, Native, and Spanish cultures, alongside works by Warhol, Schenck, Frederic Remington, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Martin Grelle, and Mark Maggiori.
“When confronted with a title like Narrative Art and the West, a visitor would be forgiven for expecting a gallery full of ‘westerns,’ but that is not the case here,” says guest curator Christian Waguespack, head of curatorial affairs and curator of 20th century art at the New Mexico Museum of Modern Art, which originated the exhibition.
Kachina Dolls by Andy Warhol.
“Of course, there are some pieces that embody more stereotypical Western tropes, for example James Earle Fraser’s End of the Trail or W. Herbert Dunton’s Illustration — Scene of Cowboy Life (Rodeo), but the work in this exhibition covers the full range of human experiences, emotions, and stories. From the genre paintings that capture otherwise-mundane interpersonal moments — including Bert Geer Phillips’ Three Musicians of the Baile, Elias Rivera’s Fiesta at Santa Fe, or Walter Ufer’s Across An Arroyo, and Luis Tapia’s vibrant Viva La Fiesta (Zozobra) — the exhibition shows the West as a complicated and complex collection of verified stories and points of view. One of the things I hope visitors will take away from this exhibition is the power of art to capture the human experience in a way that can be relatable from a variety of different backgrounds and personal life moments.”
There is not one singular monolithic story of Western art and the Southwest. The show acknowledges the power of existing heroic and archetypal Western narratives, such as in Ross Stephan’s adventurous riders in What’s Ahead, Billy Schenck’s tongue-in-cheek cowboy hero Cliff, and Fritz Scholder’s critical reappropriation of stereotypes of Indigenous representation in Indian Cliché? The experience of this Storytellers show also suggests that the story of the Southwest can be understood as a collection of individual expressions of lived experiences from celebration to grief.
My Children by W. Herbert Dunton.
The aim of the exhibition is to frame the Southwest through a variety of different cultural lenses. The stories told here speak to Manifest Destiny and the story of the heroic cowboy, as well as contemporary critiques of those narratives. Colonialism and issues of assimilation and resistance are present in works like Gerald Cassidy’s Cui Bono? and Diego Romero’s Siege of Santa Fe. Indigenous and Hisano religious ceremonies are represented through William Penhallow Henderson’s paintings Holy Week in New Mexico and Green Corn Dance, San Ildefonso. The importance of agriculture as a major company of Southwestern identity is highlighted, and various cultural approaches to such universal human experiences as grief in various Southwestern communities are explored.
Part of what makes the exhibition a must-see is its broad survey of over a century of Southwestern art from early academic painters, including members of the Taos society, to contemporary masters, including Luis Tapia and Fritz Scholder, put in dialogue in a way that they have not been before. Visitors will experience a broad scope of styles and media from painting, ceramics, sculpture, prints, to drawings for an eclectic selection of Southwestern narratives that will prompt visitors to see the Old West in new ways.
Native With Blue Blanket by Fritz Scholder.
Storytellers: Narrative Art and the West is on view through January 19, 2025 at the Briscoe Western Art Museum In San Antonio.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Briscoe Western Art Museum
