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MUSEUM news 60 LEFT: Timothy H. O’Sullivan, Ancient Ruins in the Cañon de Chelle, N.M. In a Niche 50 Feet above Present Cañon Bed. 1873. Albumen silver print. Denver Art Museum, The Daniel Wolf Landscape Photography Collection, inv. 1991.483.48. ABOVE: Storage bag. Sioux, Northern Plains. C. 1890. Deerskin, porcupine quills, tin, horsehair. 36.6 x 61.7 cm. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Chandler-Pohrt Collection, gift of Mr. William D. Weiss, inv. NA.106.245. ABOVE RIGHT: Astley D. M. Cooper (American, 1856–1924), Viewing the Curios, 1909. Oil on canvas. 35.8 x 43.2 cm. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, bequest in memory of the Houx and Newell families, inv. 5.64. BELOW RIGHT: Lance case. Apsáalooke (Crow), Montana. 1890. Rawhide, pigment, glass beads, wool cloth, tanned hide. 130.2 x 32.1 cm. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, dedicated to Mrs. Harriet Stuart Spencer in recognition of her faithful service as chairman of the Plains Indian Museum Advisory Board of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West from 1998–2010, inv. NA.108.95. On Desert Time DENVER—On Desert Time presents photographs by Timothy H. O’Sullivan and William H. Bell made in the American Southwest between 1871 and 1874. In those years, these photographers worked on the Wheeler Survey—a series of expeditions in the American Southwest led by Lieutenant George Wheeler that were offi cially titled the Geographic Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian. The Wheeler Survey was charged with the task of mapping lands for the development of military posts, transportation corridors, and mineral resources in territories ceded to the United States at the end of the Mexican-American War. O’Sullivan and Bell created striking views of the desert region that refl ect both the bones of the landscape and the photographers’ own experiences in the area. They documented places, cultures, and geologic phenomena within what are now Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, including areas such as the Grand Canyon and Canyon de Chelly. In doing so, they drew upon the conventions of landscape photography and painting as practiced in wetter, more verdant places while inventing innovative visual forms that responded to the new environments they encountered. O’Sullivan and Bell’s pictures, which were published in bound portfolios, fueled people’s curiosity about a region that was then largely unknown to other Americans and Europeans. The exhibition can be seen at the Denver Art Museum until January 8, 2017. The Frontier PALM SPRINGS—The century between 1830 and 1930 was a pivotal period in the American West during which Native and Anglo Americans often clashed, sometimes merged, and found varying degrees of fortune or hardship in a rapidly changing American landscape. An exhibition at the Palm Springs Art Museum until February 20, 2017, titled Go West! Art of the American Frontier presents some ninety works both by Anglo artist-explorers and by members of Plains Indian cultures from this explosive time period. Paintings and sculptures by George Catlin, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Remington, Charles Russell, and N. C. Wyeth document the journeys that would solidify what came to become the popular understanding of the American West. These are counterpointed by objects created by Sioux, Cheyenne, and other Native American artists that refl ect the rich cultural heritage of the Native peoples who struggled against encroachment into their lands. The diversity of works presented demonstrates how artists on both sides of this confl ict took part in shaping contemporary views of this layered and complex history. The exhibition is organized by the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming.


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