Art Talk – Wild West: Plains to the Pacific

Posted on 21 January 2014

Mined from the wide-ranging collections of the Fine Arts Museums, Wild West: Plains to the Pacific explores artistic responses to the natural and cultivated landscapes of the western United States from the frontier era to the present. The exhibit at the Legion of Honor runs from June 18 through September 11, 2016.

The American frontier has long existed in the popular imagination as a land of unlimited promise and potential. As the landscape has been reshaped throughout history by prospectors, loggers, farmers, and urban developers, generations of artists have also invented and re-envisioned it in their works to fit the preoccupations of their times. Images of the land’s exploitation contrast with those that document the natural beauty and unique geological features of the region, including depictions of the Western national parks.

This exhibition features works from the Fine Arts Museum, depicting the American West from the frontier era to the present.  It serves as a companion exhibition to Ed Ruscha and the Great American West at the de Young museum.

Included in Wild West are works by Albert Bierstadt, Maynard Dixon, William Keith, Thomas Moran, Eadweard Muybridge, Chiura Obata, Bill Owens, Frederic Remington, Ed Ruscha, Fritz Scholder, Michael Schwab, Wayne Thiebaud, Carleton Watkins, and other artists, whose diverse range of approaches to the theme contribute to a multifaceted picture of the American West.

Docent Speaker: Jim Kohn, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Jim Kohn has recently retired from a 40-year career as a teacher trainer in the English Department at San Francisco State University. He has been a docent at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco since 2006, and loves giving tours in both the de Young and the Legion of Honor, in all the visual art forms, including sculpture.  He is a regular participant in the Community Speakers program.

Jim continues to give courses at the Fromm Institute at USF on such topics as art appreciation, the Yiddish language, language variation, and post-colonial literature.  He has lived abroad in China and Switzerland, and loves to travel with his wife to faraway places.

And just for fun, he also gives docent walks at the nearby S.F. Botanical Garden.

First Wednesday Art Talks are sponsored by the Friends of the San Rafael Public Library. The lectures are held in the Council Chambers at San Rafael City Hall,1400 Fifth Avenue, beginning promptly at 1:00 p.m. Doors open at 12:30 p.m. Seating is limited. Admission is free.

UPCOMING ART TALKS:

October 5, 2016:
Ed Ruscha and the Great American West
de Young Docent: Kathryn Zupsic
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

November 2, 2016:
The Brothers Le Nain: Painters of 17th Century France
de Young Docent: TBD
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

December 7, 2016: Frank Stella
Retrospective
de Young Docent: TBD
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco