Bronzes of the American West

BY: Patricia Janis Broder,Frederic Remington,Don Polland,Henry Lion,Joe Beeler

BRONZES OF THE AMERICAN WEST Chapter I American Heritage in Bronze

Bronzes of the West are America's most unique form of sculpture. As no other land shares the same frontier heritage, no other land could produce a sculpture which breathes the spirit and tells the story of the American West. This art is not a naive art, and these bronzes are not primitive efforts which charm or delight with their childlike simplicity. They are neither academic copies of the heroic statuary of ancient Greece or Rome, nor are they imitations of the flamboyant works of the Renaissance or the Baroque. These bronzes are dramatic representations of the Western migration and settlement, creative expressions of America's natural, cultural, and spiritual heritage.The primary focus of interest in Western bronzes is historical. The art of the Western bronze is essentially a narrative art. Here are tangible pages in the story of America, threedimensional documents of the past. The Western sculptor has preserved this heritage in the most permanent form possible. He is the finest narrator of the colorful story of the frontier.

The Western sculptor has always been a historian, a storyteller conscious of his role in preserving his national heritage. He had an awareness of that which is essentially American and felt that he was witness to a side of American life that would soon belong only to memory or to history.

by Patricia Janis Broder

The Western bronzes illustrate the story of the movement westward and the life on each new frontier. They tell of the hardships of the journey and the struggle for settlement. They record days of peace and days of war. Through these sculptures, the trapper and the explorer, the farmer and the soldier, the hero and the outlaw all live again. Most of all Western bronzes glorify the cowboy and the Indian. Bronze sculptures also document local as well as national history through countless monuments and memorials to men and events that are part of the collective past of various sections of the country.

The tremendous interest in ecology today lends added dimension to Western bronzes, for Americans wish to preserve what is left of the scenic beauty and natural resources of their country and protect the wildlife which constitutes the remains of their natural heritage. Much of the forest, plains, and prairies, which gave the feeling of endless freedom to the early settlers, has been ravaged by an industrialized civilization. The frontier has vanished, man's natural resources are indeed limited, and the great herds of buffalo and of Longhorn steer have been reduced to remnants of memory. Those who struggle with the polluted air of industrialized cities long for the exhilaration of life in the open air as celebrated in bronze. They delight in those sculptures which portray the men and animals of an earlier wilderness.

LEFT: "The Deneh" (The People) Joe Beeler, 1972, height 29". Beeler sees the Navajo family as the embodiment of the proud spirit of the Navajo people. Cast by the Buffalo Bronze Works, Sedona, Arizona. From the artist's personal collection.

PETER BLOOMER "Apache" - Henry Lion, 1925, height 15". Lion's portrait was one of the first sculptural representations of an Apache. Courtesy of Main Trail Galleries, Scottsdale, Arizona.

TED HILL

LEFT:

"The Wounded Bunkie"-Frederic Remington, 1896, height 2014". Henry Bonnard Foundry, New York. Thomas Gilcrease Institute, Tulsa, Oklahoma. From the book, "Bronzes of the American West."

RIGHT: "Going to the Sing" Don Pol-land, 1971, height 4". The gathering of the patient's friends and relatives at the Sing is an important part of the Navajo healing ritual. Cast by Del Weston Art Bronze Casting, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Courtesy the May Gallery, Jackson, Wyoming.

PETER BLOOMER As man learns to value and to care for his natural environment, there is a new appreciation of the bronze naturalists and a re-evaluation of their sculptures of grizzly, elk, moose, deer, or any re-creation of woodland wildlife.

To the white man and Indian alike, the horse has always been the symbol of the West. The Western artist is continually examining the relationship between man and horse and nature and is fascinated with the horse in both its wild and its domes-ticated state. Whether mustang, cowboy's range horse, farm horse, or bronco, the spirit of the horse is best captured in bronze.

Today too there is a widespread interest in the spiritual heritage of the American West. In a society that questions all institutions and moral codes, there is undeniable appeal in a bygone world where there is an absolute definition of basic values. Here the traditional values of America prevail: industriousness and honor, courage and fortitude. The world of the Western bronze is a world of opportunity and of confidence in progress. It is a world where individual fortitude and ingenuity are honored. Here is represented the simple life, life in a society unfettered by the problems of an industrialized world. In the Western ideal, man deals directly with Nature. Charles Russell in one of his letters shows his distaste for and disillusionment with the complexities of industrialized civilization and his nostalgia for the life of the past: Invention has made it easy for man kind but it has made him no better. Machinery has no brains. A lady with manicured fingers can drive an automobile without marring her polished nails. But to sit behind six range bred horses with both hands full of ribbons these are God made animals and have brains. To drive these over a mountain road takes both hands feet and head and its no lady's job.. And men who went in small parties or alone into a wild country that swarmed with painted hair hunters with a horse under them and a rifle as their passport. These were the kind of men that brought the spotted cattle to the west before the humped backed cows were gone. Most of these people live now only in the pages of history.

The spirit and values of the principal characters in Western sculpture are a delight to those who live in this age of anxiety. In a world of urban and corporate tensions, the life of the Western settler personifies a relevant and meaningful existence. The pioneer is a man or woman of strength, courage, and optimism. The cowboy is at one with his environment, filled with the joy of living and a spirit of contentment. The traders and trappers deal directly with nature and live by their wits. Even the outlaw confirms the very code he violates, for there is no question as to the validity of his crime. Whether it is committed in the name of revenge or even of honor, there "The River Runners" by Joe Beeler. Reproduced here slightly smaller than life size, this sculpture was the Men's Art Council Award Winner at the Cowboy Artists of America Exhibition in Phoenix, October, 1974. Originally titled "Down The Snake," it was cast by Buffalo Bronze Works, Sedona, Arizona. PETER BLOOMER There is never any doubt about its outcome or his punishment. Both lawman and outlaw defend or violate the same legal and moral code. Indeed many Western figures, for example Wyatt Earp or Doc Holliday, were at different stages of their lives on different sides of the law. The solidarity of frontier law, however, is at no time in question.

Today in America there is a new pride in race, a vital interest in the roots of the land and the people. There is a new appreciation of the Indian as the "original American" and an examination of the spirit and beliefs of the Indian with new understanding. After three centuries of looking upon the Indian as a "noble savage," an "aborigine," or a "child of nature," Americans have slowly realized that the Indian had a highly developed civilization, enriched by an equanimity of spirit, a just moral code, and a respect for his natural environment.

Long before the awakening of the general public, many of the Western sculptors realized the value of Indian civilization and the injustices of our treatment of the Indian. Russell wrote: The Red man was the true American They have almost gone but will never be forgotten The history of how they faught for their country is written in blood a stain that time cannot grinde out their God was the sun their Church all out doors their only book was nature and they knew all its pages Through the study of Western bronzes we can follow the evolution of the artistic attitude toward the Indian: the early interest in him as a romantic primitive man, then a perception of his feelings of defeat and disillusionment, the sense of pathos and helplessness, and now the awakening of racial pride. Today Indian sculptors honor their past and extol in bronze the history and nature of their race.

Today too there is a growing consciousness of that which is intrinsically American. On every level - historical, environmental, spiritual, and ethnic the bronze sculptures of the West are the most permanent expression of America's national heritage.

EDITOR'S BOOK REVIEW

From time to time ARIZONA HIGHWAYS will present and recommend books we consider important and qualified sources of reference. These review reports are in no sense intended as advertisements or solicitations.

We need books. We rely on books. We believe in books. Too little recognition and credit is given to authors, researchers and publishers who dedicate their time, money and organizations to compiling and producing the great books related to the arts, crafts and cultural aspects of the world.

Patricia Janis Broder has compiled a much needed and long awaited book, BRONZES OF THE AMERICAN WEST. Publisher Harry Abrams has already earned the respect and esteem of the book industry for previous masterfully executed publications which include: THE ART OF WALT DISNEY, NORMAN ROCKWELL, FREDERIC REMINGTON, GRANDMA MOSES and the classic volume AMERICAN INDIAN ART.

BRONZES OF THE AMERICAN WEST by Patricia Janis Broder is available from better book stores and art dealers as well as from the publisher: HARRY N. ABRAMS, INC., 110 East 59th Street, New York, Ν.Υ. 10022 Thirty-five Dollars ($35.00) plus sales tax where applicable.

The publication of Bronzes of the American West is a unique event in the annals of Western Americana. For the first time, the whole story of Western bronzeş is told sumptuously illustrated, fully documented, and with an introduction by the renowned authority on Western art, Dr. Harold McCracken, Director Emeritus of the Whitney Gallery of Western Art in Cody, Wyoming. Dozens of the artists who have immortalized the American frontier experience are represented, ranging from Colonial times to the present day. The spirit of the Old West comes alive in all its excitement in the pages of this book, and students of Western lore will thrill to the stories of a young nation's growth and expansion beyond the Mississippi to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, to the Rockies and the Pacific Coast beyond.

The author, Patricia Broder, is a specialist in American Western bronze sculpture and herself an enthusiastic collector. Interlacing biographical and critical insights, she explores the recurring themes of Western bronze sculpture and the lives of their most famous interpreters: the Indian as a “noble savage,” an idealized and Romantic image based essentially on classical prototypes (Henry Kirke Brown, John Quincy Adams Ward, Olin Levi Warner); the beauty of animals in the wilderness, in whose depiction the Americans (Edward Kemeys, Eli Harvey, Edwin W. Deming) were tutored by the great French animaliers of the nineteenth century; the bond of affection uniting a cowboy and his horse under nature's skies (Solon H. Borglum, Charles M. Russell); the stampeding of buffalo and cavalry troopers over the dustfilled plains (Frederic Remington); the fortitude of pioneer men and women in the harsh drama of the westward migration and settlement (A. Phimister Proctor, Mahonri MacIntosh Young); the bloody suppression of the Indian's civilization in the last century (Cyrus Dallin, Adolph A. Weinman); and the renewed ethnic pride of the Indians today in the solemn beauty of their rituals (Saint Clair Homer, Michael Naranho).

Fully as valuable as the colorful and lively text and the lavish illustrations is the documentary material. A biographical dictionary contains thumbnail sketches of every sculptor discussed in the text as well as others who have contributed to the genre. A geographical index locates large-scale outdoor monuments portraying Western themes. A comprehensive index lists the major Western bronzes in public museums and collections throughout the United States. All the pertinent data is given for these works the years of their modeling and casting, dimensions, foundries, expositions in which they appeared. Notes, a selected bibliography, and a general index round out this volume, which is an invaluable addition to the literature on this most truly American art.

Allan C. Houser (b. 1914), a member of the Apache tribe, is a sculptor of national stature. Houser's name is derived from the Indian name Ha-oz-ous, meaning "Pulling Roots."

Houser developed a strong sense of identity with the American Indian and a deep dedication to his people. All of his sculptures proclaim this heritage. They are neither narratives nor documents of Indian life, but works of art which express the Indian spirit. Throughout his career, he has worked to develop artistic ability in young Indians.

Houser achieves a tremendous sense of monumental-ity in his bronze sculpture. He simplifies the basic forms and completely eliminates distracting details. His bronzes of Indian life have dignity, power, and a sense of timelessness. Houser's Indians belong to an eternal race.

MORNING SONG, a study of two Indians hunched under a blanket waiting for dawn when the dance festival will begin, has a feeling of total serenity. The Indians wait for a ceremony which has its roots in the past and will endure for generations.

Houser's sculpture of an Indian woman herding goats imparts great dignity to simple labor. The strong sil-houette of the figure has a sense of rhythm and harmony. Through his sculpture, Houser transforms everyday lije into ritual.

Houser has received many honors and awards. In 1948, he was awarded the Guggenheim Scholarship for Sculpture and Painting and, in 1954, he received the Order of the Palmes Académiques from the French government for his contribution to the advancement of Indian art. Houser was awarded the Waite Phillips Trophy by the Philbrook Museum of Tulsa, Oklahoma, for his outstanding contributions to Indian art.

For many years, Houser has taught in Indian schools throughout the United States. Since 1962, he has taught painting and sculpture at his first art school, the Institute for American Indian Art in Santa Fe, where Indian artists have the opportunity to study the innovations of twentieth-century art. Houser advises his students: "Be an Indian but allow something for creativity too."

A Major American Painting

The following excerpt from the book, "Thomas Moran, Artist of the Mountains," by Thurman Wilkins, University of Oklahoma Press.

From Fillmore, Moran and Colburn continued on horseback, a five-day journey, most of the way in company with a wagon taking freight to the Major's men at Kanab. Their route lay through Beaver and Cedar City. Some eight miles south of Kanarraville they turned into Kanarra Canyon, the entrance to a narrow pass through the mountains, where in a side canyon they saw a lofty red knob which they named Colburn's Butte, and which Moran later drew for the Aldine. It was also from this As that they received their first view of that massive wall of sandstone, with its array of pinnacles gleaming red in the sun - that wall which Major Powell had named Vermilion Cliffs. The cliffs were carved with immense amphitheatres, they were buttressed with beetling spurs, embellished with turrets and towers; and near the Virgin River they flung off vast buttes. "And giant buttes they verily are," wrote Powell's assistant, Captain C. E. Dutton, "rearing their unassailable summits into the domain of clouds, rich with the aspiring forms of Gothic type, and flinging back in red and purple the intense sunlight poured over them. Could the imagination blanch those colors, it might compare them with vast icebergs." The Indians called the place "Rock Rovers' Land." The cliffs fascinated Moran; he studied them and fixed their forms and colors in mind; not only would he draw them for the Aldine, they would also provide the subject of his spectacular oil, The Valley of the Rio Virgin.