“WESTERN ART,” as in visual art about the Western United States, often conjures romanticized and myopic depictions of an imagined past: Charles Marion Russell’s illustrative fantasies about cowboys and Indians; sublime renderings of the Rocky Mountains by East Coast painters, idealizing the landscape in service of Manifest Destiny; or James Earle Fraser’s End of the Trail, a widely reproduced — and frequently bootlegged — 1894 sculpture of an exhausted Native American, spear tucked loosely under one arm, slouched atop his equally exhausted horse.
In the 21st century, these aesthetics feel formulaic, outdated and, at times, problematic. The West has long had diverse topographies, peoples and perspectives. Western artists tackle charged topics, including environmental exploitation and community displacement, and propose new ways to think about the region’s multiple pasts, presents and futures. Today, when ranchers fly drones and water protectors reach
