Frederic Remington: The masterworks - Softcover

It would be easy to dismiss Remington's Wild West panorama with his glorified cowboys and noble savages, his ready-made melancholy and sunsets. While this catalogue of a traveling exhibition recognizes the painter's vocal jingoism and racism, it aims to show that he was much more than a facile celebrant of American frontier life. In Remington's later paintings, a literal realism gave way to impressionism and symbolism. His pure, almost abstract landscapes and romantic nocturnes suggest that white settlers could live in harmony with nature instead of imposing their will on it. The energy and dynamism of his darkly encrusted, cantilevered sculptures are undeniable. Remington's awareness that the destruction of Amerindian civilization was a national tragedy is reflected in his little-known, melodramatic novels and short stories, as one of the essays here makes clear. With 180 plates (half in color), this album highlights his diverse artistic outlets, from photography to drawing. Shapiro is chief curator at the St. Louis Art Museum; Hassrick is director of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. BOMC dividend selection, American Artist Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A catalog designed to accompany a traveling exhibition of some of Remington's best-known paintings, this work includes essays by Peter Hassrick, author of an earlier monograph on Remington, and several other scholars. The aim of this latest addition to Remingtoniana is twofold: to place the artist and his work in the context of late 19th-century American and Western culture; and to win for Remington his due as an artist and not merely as an illustrator of cowboys and Indians. The latter aim is achieved by building for him a conventional art historical nicheand the tone of this argument is strained. Recommended for larger libraries. Raymond L. Wilson, formerly San Francisco State Univ.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.