The Denver Art Museum (DAM) celebrates nearly 20 years of collecting contemporary western art in the new exhibition, Western Horizons: Landscapes from the Contemporary Realism Collection. On view through August 28, 2011
Western Horizons looks at the American West through the eyes of artists working today. Revealing the unique landscapes and scenery that still exist, the show features a selection of 25 paintings, purchased with funds raised by the museum’s Contemporary Realism Group. The exhibition will be on view through the summer of 2011 in the Hamilton Building’s Dietler Gallery of Western American Art.
“Landscapes continue to inspire artists today much as they did well-known western painters like Charles M. Russell and George Catlin,” says Thomas Smith, the exhibition’s curator and director of the DAM’s Petrie Institute of Western American Art. “This collection underscores the fact that landscape is indeed a relevant subject exploring many diverse aspects of western life.”
Western Horizons includes unspoiled vistas of wide open spaces and landscapes completely dominated by the work of man, as well more idyllic views of man and nature in harmony. Among artists represented are Clyde Aspevig, Len Chmiel, Don Coen, Daniel Morper, Leon Loughridge, and T. Allen Lawson.
Image: Chuck Forsman, Aggregate (detail), 2002. Funds from the Contemporary Realism Group.
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