Book Review: Western Traditions: Contemporary Artists of the American West

Authors

• Reece Summers, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Date of this Version

2006

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 26:3 (Summer 2006). Copyright © 2006 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

American western art is experiencing an astonishing resurgence in quantity and popularity. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that "Americans are buying Western art (pictures and sculptures of cowboys, Indians, ranch animals and the landscapes that sustain them) at a startling rate, paying prices that stretch into six and seven figures." Modern-day critics of traditional western art are not as enthusiastic, pointing to its male-centered tradition celebrating violence and overlooking the devastation of indigenous cultures and the environment caused by European settlement.