Each era in the history of the West has produced a small group of artists who have served to define the Western art genre and whose works have struck a particular chord with the public. Today, the market for Western art continues to boom and the Cowboy Artists of America have made the biggest contribution to this phenomenon. The most prestigious and widely recognized group of Western artists in the country, the CAA has defined the parameters of Western art, dictating style, subject matter, and market value. This large-format book features the artwork of more than fifty current and past members of this elite organization of painters and sculptors. Their subjects range from mountain men, early settlers, and Native Americans, to cowboy life of both the old West and the contemporary ranch. The Western landscape's defining character provides an underlying force throughout.
The first in a two-volume survey, readers are invited to re-examine the history of the West and its art through a multi-faceted contemporary lens. More than 40 artists are included who reflect the tremendous diversity, depth, and breadth of a field steeped in history. While some follow the traditions established by Remington and Russell, others seek to break from tradition, busting myths and bringing new insights and artistic styles to the genre. They come from both sides of the Mississippi and have pedigrees that range from bona fide cowboy or Native American credentials to careers in commercial illustration. The unifying theme is a common concern for and commitment to their art and the West itself. In this volume, contemporary artists are featured whose work revolves around the American Cowboy. Within these pages, many different artists, some of whom have been cowboys themselves, exhibit their rendition of the wonderful world of the West.
James Reynolds vividly depicts a Western landscape as timeless as the subjects who dominate it. His paintings, woven together with Don Hedgpeth's knowledgeable stories, explore a new outlook on the enduring American symbol of the cowboy. 85 full-color paintings.
In American Cowboys, renowned French photographer Anouk Masson Krantz travels tens of thousands of miles from New York City across the United States to dive deeper into the world of the cowboy culture. Her photography reveals the real lives and communities of this largely overlooked and elusive part of the world.
"Demonstrating how the methods of popular culture scholarship can be merged with those of marketing and consumer research, a mutually beneficial strategy of analysis is showcased."--BOOK JACKET.
"Giddyup, giddyup as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!" The Gingerbread Cowboy can run from the rancher, he can dash past the javelinas, and he can giddyup right by the cattle grazing on the mesa. But what happens when he meets a coyote sleeping in the sun? Janet Squires and Holly Berry retell this classic tale with a Wild Western flair, filled with rodeo-romping fun.
John Edward Borein (1872-1945) was the oldest of five children, born into a politically inclined family in San Leandro, then a Western cow town on the main northern California cattle trail not far from Oakland. The constant stream of cattle and 'vaqueros' moving through his hometown had a powerful effect on the young Borein, who began to sketch these men and animals when he was but five years old. Borein's artistic bent was encouraged by his family, and after grade school he briefly enrolled at the San Francisco Art Association School, leaving to become a working cowboy himself. For several years, the artist combined the two occupations, becoming a skilled and prolific sketcher of the Old West and its life. A move to New York in 1907 helped to cement his reputation as an artist. Like his good friend Charles M. Russell, Borein stands today as one of the most artistically gifted and intellectually honest chroniclers of the American West and a way of life that has now passed almost completely away. A master at portraying cowboys, Indians and Western life and work, his early work documented the transition from Spanish to American influence in California. He continued to paint Western scenes until the end of his life. The fine sketches, etchings, drawings and watercolors of this self-taught artist come to life in this book.
Will James (1892-1942), artist and writer of the American West, was born Joseph Ernest Nephtali Dufault. It was during his creative years everyone grew to know him as Will James. During the next several years, he drifted, worked at several jobs, was briefly jailed for cattle rustling, served in the army, and began selling his sketches and in 1922 sold his first writing, Bucking Horse Riders. The sale of several books followed. In 1926 his most famous book, Smoky the Cowhorse, was published, which won the Newbery Medal in 1927. His fictionalized autobiography, Lone Cowboy, was written in 1930. He also wrote Home Ranch (1935) and he wrote his last book, The American Cowboy, in 1942. In all, he wrote and illustrated 23 books.
