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RENOVATIONS COMPLETE AT PHOENIX ART MUSEUM

The Phoenix Art Museum has completed major renovations that include its Spanish Colonial and Western American galleries. Mark Zaplin recently visited the museum 's Western American Galleries and says the newly renovated space is impressive. The new wall configurations are flexible and allow for displaying more artwork from the Western collection than was previously possible.

The renovation, in combination with recent acquisitions, allows the museum more curatorial flexibility to place works from their collection in new contexts. Jerry Smith, the Phoenix Art Museum’s curator of American and Western American art, discussed some of the plans behind the renovation. “The art of the American West has long been a significant part of our Museum’s collection," he said. "We now are able to show the collection in a fitting manner.” According to Smith, some of the highlights include a work by the earliest Anglo artist to visit Arizona, John Mix Stanley. "Chain of Spines Along the Gila River," from 1855, was painted nine years after the artist accompanied the Kearney expedition into the Arizona territory during the U.S.-Mexican War. The American Impressionist, Edward Potthast, traveled to the Grand Canyon under the auspices of the Santa Fe Railway. One of the resulting paintings from this 1910 excursion, "Looking Across the Grand Canyon," is now one of the jewels of the museum's collection.

The Phoenix Art Museum's new gallery spaces now allow for an expanded chronological display of Western art, from the 19th-century explorer artists through contemporary artists of the “New West.” Particular emphasis has been given to documenting the cultural history of Arizona and the Southwest through art. Paintings by the Taos School artists and the early modernists working in New Mexico are also prominently featured. The Taos Society of Artists is represented with some exceptional examples, including "The Captive," E.I. Couse's first exploration of Native American subject matter, pre-dating his arrival in Taos, and "Taos Indian Chanters with Drum" by E. Martin Hennings, which Smith calls a "tour-de-force of academic painting," praised for its composition, strong execution, and lyrical beauty. In addition, a dedicated space within the galleries will display drawings, watercolors, prints, and other works on paper. Intending a rotation of exhibits four times each year, presently installed is an exhibition of Western American images.