Under the Desert Stars exhibit, curated by Mark Sublette

Featured in Western Art Collector magazine, October, 2014

Woven Nation and Under the Desert Stars Exhibit opens October 17 at Tubac Center of the Arts

Navajo weavings and Maynard Dixon works are paired at unique exhibition

Tubac Center of the Arts will present Woven Nation and Under the Desert Stars, a dual exhibit from two very different collections.  Together these exhibitions offer an artistic history of Arizona and promise to be an exceptional overall experience for visitors.

The doubleheader opens Friday, October 17, with a gala reception from 5 to 7 p.m. featuring music by Tucson guitarist Gabriel Ayala.

Woven Nation features contemporary and historic Navajo weavings, blankets, rugs and saddle blankets from the private collection of Steve Getzwiller of Nizhoni Ranch and represents the best of this extraordinary Native American art form.  Getzwiller, a protégé of Charles Di Peso, director of the Amerind Foundation, became fascinated with Navajo rugs in his late teens and became a Navajo weaving expert and art collector.

Under the Desert Stars, the companion exhibit, showcases select works and memorabilia of Maynard Dixon (1875-1946) from the private collection of Dr. Mark Sublette’s Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona.  Sublette is an authority on the work of the 20^th-century American artist whose oeuvre focused on the American West.

A native Californian, Dixon felt an intense desire to capture the West before it was gone.  This passion drove his painting and drawing career and its legacy of Western landscapes, peoples and cultures.

“Two of my favorite pieces in the Tubac exhibit have never been displayed together outside of our Maynard Dixon Museum in Tucson,” states Sublette.  “Apache Women, Rice, Ariz was painted July, 1915, only three years after Arizona won its statehood.  I first purchased the small colored pencil drawing and then years later found the long lost mate, an oil of the same two Apache women.  Dixon had clearly done a study and then shortly after executed this snapshot of Apache life in oil.”

Both Getzwiller and Sublette will make scheduled appearances to share their expertise and bring their collections to life.

Woven Nation and Under the Desert Stars continue through November 30.

Published online with permission of Western Art Collector magazine.