The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas Opens "Go West!" Exhibition

Written by Edward Bancroft Saturday, 14 January 2012 01:08

Austin, Texas.- The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas is pleased to present "Go West! Representations of the American Frontier" on view at the museum from January 14th through September 23rd 2012. The focus of the exhibition is on the western art works from the celebrated C.R. Smith Collection (donated to the museum in 1970) and highlight the lifestyle and landscape of the Pioneering West. The exhibition will explore the pioneering American West as both a physical terrain and an idea deeply rooted in the American psyche. "Go West!" will also provide a Western counterpart to the "American Scenery: Different Views in Hudson River School Painting" exhibition which opens at the museum on February 26th. "Go West!" features paintings, sculptures and works on paper made in, and about, the American West by Henry Farny, Charles Russell, Maynard Dixon, and other artists from the Blanton’s celebrated C.R. Smith Collection of Art of the American West, in the largest installation of this collection in over a decade.

The installation will be supplemented with additional works from the museum’s collection by artists with relevant connections such as Frederic Remington and selections from The Blanton’s large collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century American prints, as well as a distinctive group of turn-of-the-century miniature Western landscape paintings by Elbridge Ayer Burbank, which have never before been exhibited. Borrowed works from the University’s Harry Ransom Center and Briscoe Center for American History will also be on view.  “Go West! presents works from The Blanton’s collection by some of the most illustrious artists of the period such as Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Remington,” states Blanton director Simone Wicha.  “Visitors will learn about their lives, their artistic styles, the historical moments and subjects they depict, and come away with an appreciation of the rich heritage of the great American West.” Go West! is organized thematically and chronologically, with investigations of the country’s westward expansion in the nineteenth century, including: contested territories and the ensuing battles of the U.S. Army cavalry, representations of Native Americans, cowboys and ranchers, ideas of Manifest Destiny, the industrialization and urbanization of the land, and the ever-changing American landscape as witnessed and portrayed by artists living and working in the Western United States.


The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin is one of the foremost university art museums in the country, and has the largest and most comprehensive collection of art in Central Texas. The Blanton’s collection comprises over 17,000 works of art in a variety of mediums, with particular depth in Western European art from the fourteenth through twentieth centuries and modern and contemporary art of the Americas. Through the collecting of art, preserving it in optimal condition, and creatively displaying and interpreting these objects, The Blanton serves as an intellectual and social portal connecting the university and the rest of the world through visual art and culture. The art museum of The University of Texas at Austin was born of a generous gift from an unexpected source. In 1927 Archer M. Huntington, a New Yorker and the son of railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington, donated four thousand acres of land in Galveston, Texas, to the university with instructions that it "be dedicated to the support of an art museum." The proceeds from the eventual sale of that land created an endowment for museum operations and provided a portion of the cost for the construction in 1963 of a new building for the art department of the university, including some gallery space that was formally named the University Art Museum. All told, the Blanton collection today numbers more than 17,000 works. the museum takes enormous pride in the great depth they have achieved by concentrating their collecting efforts on works from specific periods, movements, and artists. The long-held vision of a new museum building became a reality with the groundbreaking for a new facility in October 2003. The new complex, designed by Kallmann McKinnell & Wood Architects, is comprised of the Mari and James A. Michener Gallery Building, a 124,000-square-foot space that houses the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions; the 56,000-square-foot Edgar A. Smith Building features a café, museum shop, classrooms, auditorium, and offices; and a 145,000-square-foot public plaza and garden designed by Peter Walker and Partners. As the only art museum in Austin with a permanent collection of substantial range and depth, the Blanton has embraced a mission of serving as a "cultural gateway" between the university and the community. Visit the museum's website at ... http://blantonmuseum.org

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