The Other Side of the West

Desert Caballeros Western Museum

photos by John Hazeltine

Wickenburg, AZ

520-684-2272

The Other Side of the West

April 29 - June 18, 2000

Don't expect a painting of the lone cowboy gazing into the sunset. Don't expect to see smoke curling from the trapper's cabin nestled by a mountain stream. And please don't expect to see Kopellis dancing across the desert or coyotes baying at the moon. (left: K. D. Wiggins, The Day Josie Chesser Died, oil, 48 x 36 inches, Desert Caballeros Western Museum)

For this exciting new exhibition, ten of the Southwest's most respected artists have joined forces to tweak, prod, and challenge the traditional images that have dominated western art for more than a century. At the same time, their work is a serious embrace of our traditional western icons. Their goal is not to parody western subjects, but to express their fascination with the West in bold, fresh, and colorful new ways. They confront the past with new eyes and a vigorous new spirit. You, too, will see the West in ways you've never seen it before.

Featuring paintings by ten of the best known Western artists working in the genre today, "The Other Side of the West" includes original, new artwork by JD Challenger, Robert Daughters, Billy Schenk, Nelson Boren, Maria Sharylen, John Axton, K. Douglas Wiggins, David DeVary, J. E. Knauf and Ben Wright.

Although their styles range as broadly as their personalities, these artists have moved collectors to a new perspective on Western Art that suggests a sophisticated acknowledgment and, therefore, a subtle distance from the expected cliches. Individually they have made their mark; collectively they represent "The Other Side of the West."

The exhibition will receive its premiere showing at Desert Caballeros Western Museum and will open with a gala reception on April 29, 2000 at 5:30 PM. The public is invited. The exhibition will be on view through June 18, 2000.

"The Other Side of the West" is supported by the Arizona Commission on the Arts' Traveling Exhibitions Program. After leaving Wickenburg, the exhibition will travel to other venues around the United States, including, the Philbrook Museum and the Frederick Remington Museum, according to Maria Sharylen, one of the artist participants. With its reputation of being "Arizona's most western museum" and perhaps now one should add "wildest western museum," Desert Caballeros Western Museum, was a natural choice for Arizona's Commission on the Arts to launch this exhibition.

Read more about the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Resource Library Magazine

Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line to see enlargements.

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