Arlington, TX – The Arlington Museum of Art will host an exhibit of hand colored engravings and lithographs that played an important role in the dissemination of knowledge and understanding about the West and those who inhabited it after Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1803. The images and their artists influenced the perception of the early wild west.
The exhibit will run from September 6th through October 19th. A preview of the exhibition and opening reception for exhibit sponsors and museum members will be held on September 5, 2014 from 7 – 9pm.
The exhibit was curated by Dr. Randall Griffey the Associate Curator of Modern American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and features 48 works from renowned artists such as Frederic Remington, George Catlin, John James Audubon and Albert Bierstadt. Audubon was known for his detailed images of American Birds, Albert Bierstadt was known for his grand landscapes while Remington and Catlin were known for their images of the people of the west.
Artists often accompanied governmental geographical surveyors of the west to capture imagery with an international or an eastern United States audience in mind, and it both drew from and promoted fantasies about Native Americans and the west as much as it documented reality.
“This exhibit features some of the most celebrated American artists who set the stage for western expansion,” said Chris Hightower, Executive Director of the Arlington Museum of Art. “This imagery from the Old American West defined the 18th century desire to settle the west in the name of Manifest Destiny.”
Tickets for the exhibit are available online at www.arlingtonmuseum.org or at the museum.
###
