Frederic Remington

From my review of “Remington Looking West” at the Clark Art Institute:

Others painted the American West before Frederic Remington. George Catlin made iconic portraits of Native Americans in the 1830s and '40s. Albert Bierstadt painted sweeping Western vistas from the 1850s to the 1870s.

But the sharp, concise exhibit "Remington Looking West" that curator Cody Hartley has organized at the Clark Art Institute reminds us that Remington painted the Wild West that became the stuff of pop-culture legend.

Remington (1861-1909) traveled around what is now Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, Texas, Canada, and Mexico. But his base for much of his life was in and around New York City, where he made his name as an illustrator for major magazines and then as a fine-art painter, sculptor, and writer.

Remington's central subject was America's Indian wars of the second half of the 19th century, which were sparked by white colonization of the West.

Read the rest here.

“Remington Looking West,” Clark Art Institute, 225 South St., Williamstown, Feb. 17 to May 4, 2008.

Pictured: Frederic Remington’s painting “Friends or Foes? (The Scout),” c. 1900-05.

Neal Walsh, William Schaff

From my review of Neal T. Walsh and William Schaff at 5 Traverse gallery:

Providence artist Neal Walsh’s great new abstract paintings bring to mind peeling paint, rust, and cracking plaster in old mills or houses, maybe the wall in the hall of an apartment building. On view at 5 Traverse gallery — along with work by Warren’s William Schaff — they embody the romance of ruins, capturing a particularly Providence love of old buildings and their majestic rot. But they also reach toward humanity’s ancient awe of ruins from Egypt to Greece to Mexico — to Edward Hopper’s sagging Victorian homes and tired city streets.

Read the rest here.

Neal T. Walsh and William Schaff, 5 Traverse, 5 Traverse St., Providence, April 11 to May 3, 2008.

Pictured from top to bottom: Neal Walsh’s “Dry Salvages,” 2007, and William Schaff’s “Cornered Eagle,” 2008.