The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is proud to host the first major temporary exhibition since the remodeled space opened its doors again in August — and it’s done quite an outstanding job. What’s the buzz?
On December 3, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) will open a stunning exhibition that examines the development and disruption of the American West through more than 80 artworks from one of the nation’s outstanding collections of Western art. “Go West! Art of the American Frontier from the Buffalo Bill Center of the West” will feature celebrated paintings, sculpture, and cultural objects by Euro-American and Plains Indian artists. “Altogether, they exemplify the ways in which newcomers mythologized their vision of the region, and Native peoples sought to preserve their vanishing way of life,” according to the museum’s director, Gretchen Dietrich.
Executive Director and CEO of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Bruce Eldredge added, “‘Go West!’ features some of the center’s most extraordinary artwork from a ‘Who’s Who’ in art of the American West: Alfred Jacob Miller, William T. Ranney, John Mix Stanley, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, and W.H.D. Koerner, to name a few. Indeed, the works from this period were instrumental in shaping our perceptions of the American West — and still do today.
“We here at the Center of the West are on the trailing edge of our Centennial year — a grand celebration of our past, and a nod to the new century ahead. We’re committed to the vision of our namesake, and the organization founded in his memory in 1917, i.e., taking the West to the world. So, at a time when our foot traffic slows, Go West! allows us to do exactly that as we dispatch our most important and most popular works to other museums throughout the country during our ‘off season.’”
“Go West!” will continue through March 11, 2018. To learn more, visit the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.
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