WESTERN ARTIntroduction to Houston Livestock

Show and Rodeo

GEORGIA O’KEEFFE 1887-1986

Ram’s Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills – 1935

-One of the most celebrated women

artists of the 20th century

-Known for her desert style pictures

that included flowers, skulls and bones

-This painting is representative of strength, will power, and omnipresence

-The overarching horns and overbearing appearance of the ram’s head she finds to be uniquely American because our culture is so

dominating.-

Richard Avedon – 1923-2004

“In the American West”

Richard Wheatcroft, rancher, Jordan, Montana, 1981

-A fashion and portrait American photographer

-Lead photographer for Vogue magazine in the 1960s and 1970s

-Interested in how portraiture captures the personality and soul of its subject

-Traveled the American West for 6 years photographing 125 people that caught his eye

Story of Richard Wheatcroft Miles City, Montana, hosts the most “Western” of events each May, a

bucking horse sale. Rank horses, brought in from ranches, buck and lunge out of chutes as an auctioneer briskly sells the stock to rodeo contractors from all over the West. One night after the sale, Avedon and Wilson went to a bar in Miles City and met by chance, Richard Wheatcroft. He was twenty-four and ran the cattle his grandfather had put together starting in 1914 with a homestead allotment of 320 free acres. His grandfather continued to buy land during the Depression and in times of drought from hard-up neighbors.In 1978 Richard found his father crushed to death under a tractor, and the responsibility of running the 15,000-acre ranch near Jordan fell to him.

Avedon photographs Richard Wheatcroft on his ranch. The ranch is so remote that mail is delivered only three times a week and cellular coverage uncertain. The ranch gate is nine miles from a paved road.

James Ayers

Mato-Tope, Four Bears - 1832

-Mato-Tope was a Mandan Chief. He was called “Four Bears” after a battle where people said he charged like “four bears”

-Famously known for being a brave warrior, and killing a Cheyenne chief in hand-to-hand combat

-dressed in full battle regalia, with all of the trappings of a valiant and honorable warrior. The number of feathers worn in a warrior’s hair denoted battle coups.

Robert Glen – 1940-?

The Mustangs of Las Colinas - 1976

-Bronze sculpture

designed to be viewed

in any direction

at location in Dallas, TX

-Largest equestrian sculpture in the world

-Robert Glen started as a researcher in nature at the age of 14 and designed his first bronze cast sculpture in the 1970s