Painters and the American West: The Anschutz Collection [Hardcover]

Joan Carpenter Troccoli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2000

A tour of the art of the Old West, based on the Anschutz Collection. It examines these paintings as aesthetic objects rather than historical documents, allowing the reader to see each work as a self-conscious fashioning of a personal vision and an integral part of mainstream American art.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Ranging from the 1820s to the present, these paintings from a private collection feature all of the famous Western artists, including Remington, Russell, Schreyvogel, O'Keeffe, Bierstadt, Moran, Bingham, Catlin, Miller, Farny, and many others who seldom painted Western scenes: Benton, Henri, Bellows, Hartley, Hassam, and Twachtman, among others. Occasionally a painting is juxtaposed with a stylistically similar European artwork. The collection is particularly rich in early-20th-century Taos and Santa Fe artists. Organized into portraiture, still lifes, genre painting, and landscapes, this book, with its 200 color reproductions, will enthrall art lovers. Accompanying commentary about both the paintings and the artists is lively and instructive.
Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The nemesis of paintings of the landscape and people of the American West is the documentalist state of mind that cares more about accurate rendition of physical cultural detail than about a picture's aesthetic qualities. So says Troccoli at the outset of her commentary accompanying this resplendent display of one of the greatest collections of so-called western art. She thereafter never lets us forget the painterly and stylistic qualities of the paintings she focuses on in sections devoted, respectively, to portraits, still lifes, genre scenes, and landscapes. She begins by considering a very exceptional work by an artist who otherwise was rather commonplace, discussing Buffalo Dancer by Randall Davey as being far more appreciable as a fauvist-influenced color study than as a Native American document. She is very persuasive, as she continues to be throughout. The trick for most readers will be tearing their eyes away from the book's 188 superb colorplates to attend to her. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (August 11, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300087225
• ISBN-13: 978-0300087222
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 10.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,066,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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