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Essential West Magazine
Exploring Art, Literature, History, Museums, Lifestyle, and Cultures of the West
It amazes me that four letters - W-E-S-T - have the ability to evoke an instantaneous emotional image. Simply the act of reading these four letters has caused you to form a narrative of your west.
Can the West be distilled to its essence - a simple direction or region? I believe not; it is a deeper dive of consciousness. How America sees itself and the world defines us. Diverse cultures, strong individualism, open spaces, and raw natural beauty marinated in a roughshod history have formed this region’s unique milieu.
Our online magazine’s primary focus is to feature relevant topics in art, literature, history, museums, lifestyle, and culture; lofty goals for any publication. No single magazine can be the beckon of all things western; it is a diverse, evolving paradigm that cannot be pigeonholed. As the publisher, I hope to be the buffalo that grazes the wide expanse of western sensibility and relay to you a glimpse of how I perceive our Essential West.
- Mark Sublette
Featured Article
The Native Artists Dominating Museum Presentations in 2024
Artnet surveyed special exhibitions currently on view at more than 200 U.S. art museums producing a list of the contemporary artists most in fashion nationwide. At institutions, anyway. The rankings do not consider galleries or the secondary market. The highly respected art world publication found nearly 3,500 names appearing in solo and group shows at big and small...
Western Cities Again Tops in 2024 'Arts Vibrancy Index' Rankings
Southern Methodist University’s DataArts, the National Center for Arts Research, has released its annual ranking of the 40 most arts-vibrant communities in the United States. San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City again topped the “Large Communities” (population over 1,000,000) category for 2024, repeating from a year ago. Western cities also claimed top spot in the “Medium Communities” (100,000-1,000,000) category with Santa Fe, and “Small Communities” (under 100,000) with Jackson, WY/ID, also a repeat winner from 2023. Santana Family mural in San Francisco's Mission District. First published in 2015, the Arts Vibrancy Index is composed of 13 unique measures covering aspects of supply,...
Laine Justice's Extraordinary Story from Kidnapping to Fine Art Success
Laine Justice’s dazzling Electric Forest (2024) painting leaps at viewers like a dog reunited with its owner after a week away – all licks, and tail wags, and running in circles. Fantastically vivid colors. Pinks and blues. Trees. Water. Maybe even a little dog’s face. An abstracted version of paradise. Joyful. Difficult imagining this cheery wonderland came from the mind of an artist kidnapped out of her bed by strangers in the middle of the night as a 14-year-old, drug down stairs, forced onto an airplane, flown across the county, and enrolled into a cult. A cult she’d spend her...
Who were the 'Indian Space Painters?'
Throughout the first half of the 20th century, New York’s Art Students League was the most important artistic training ground in the world. A who’s-who of preeminent American modernists occupied its classrooms. Norman Rockwell, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, and Mark Rothko. Helen Frankenthaler, George Bellows, Cy Twombly, Barnett Newman, and Romare Bearden. Instructors included Robert Henri, Thomas Hart Benton, and Jacob Lawrence. A partial list. Amazing. Since its founding in 1962 as a high school, Santa Fe’s Institute of American Indian Arts has been as influential to contemporary American art as the Art Students League was to American...
Hemingway, Churchill and the Trophy Fish of Catalina Island
“Fish on!” at the Catalina Museum for Art & History during “Capturing Memories: A Half Century of Fishing 1900-1950,” an exhibition of photographs highlighting Catalina Island’s emergence as “the birthplace of big game fishing.” That story begins in 1898 with Charles F. Holder, believed to be the first man to catch a tuna on rod and reel – and what a whopper it was, 183-pounds. He landed the fish off Santa Catalina Island, about 25 miles from the California mainland depending on point of departure. Holder would go on to found the Tuna Club of Avalon, so named for Catalina’s...
More Than Meets the Eye with Omaha's 'Pioneer Courage' Monument
Monuments matter. They are America’s most contentious artform. They are so because they are public, and broadcast values to the public. They speak for the cities erecting them, even if many of those citizens don’t agree. Monuments tell stories. They shape history. They’re propaganda. Monuments were essential to establishing the Lost Cause narrative across the South, transforming the Confederate side of the Civil War into a gallant struggle for state’s rights against a massive, federal oppressor. Monuments turned insurrectionist slave holders into plucky rebels fighting for their homes. Monuments across the South turned inhumanity into sympathy, nobility. Monuments matter. Monuments...
Roland Peterson's Vibrant California Colors
If Roland Peterson’s “Visual Feast” were an actual feast, it should come with a warning about tooth decay. Peterson paints with the juicy colors and gummy richness of gumdrops and licorice. Thick, sweet, gooey. Make your teeth hurt sweet. The Elverhøj Museum of History and Art in Slovang, CA serves up “Roland Petersen: The Visual Feast” through January 5, 2025, in what will be an introduction to the artist for most. Roland Peterson, 'Enjoying the View,' 2009. Courtesy Elverhøj Museum of History and Art. Petersen’s (b. 1926; Endelave, Denmark) family moved from Denmark to San Francisco in the late 1920s....
Ansel Adams and Chip Thomas: Western Photographers
One West, exalted. The West of canyons and rushing waterfalls and mountain peaks. The other West… what would be the best word to describe it? Erased? No, it remains, not that erasure wasn’t tried. Forgotten? Not to the people who continue calling it home and have for centuries. Overlooked? Too kind. How about abused? The abused West. The West of Indian reservations and mining. Both can be seen in Cincinnati of all places as part of the FotoFocus Biennial 2024, a statewide celebration of photography. The exalted West comes by way of Ansel Adams at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Everyone...
Norman Akers: Calling for Home
You may never find yourself in remote Manhattan, Kansas, 120 miles west of Kansas City. If you ever do, make sure to visit the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art on the charming campus of Kansas State University. Admission is free. Two paintings from the permanent collection would be worth paying good money to admire. The first is Birger Sandzén’s (1871–1954) gumdrop fantasy landscape, Still Water (1926). Sandzén is one of my favorite Western artists and I’ve only seen one painting of his superior to this. The second is Norman Akers’ (b. 1958; Wahzhazhi/Osage) Calling for Home (2023). An elk...
Wendy Red Star: Genius
Portland-based Apsáalooke/Crow visual artist Wendy Red Star (b. 1981) has been selected as a MacArthur Fellow for 2024. A MacArthur Fellowship – the so-called “genius grant” – comes with a stipend of $800,000 paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years. The monetary award is unrestricted meaning it can be spent however the honoree chooses. A MacArthur Fellowship represents arguably the highest achievement a creative can earn. It inarguably represents life-altering monetary support in pursuit of that creativity. The process for selecting MacArthur Fellows can be described as secretive. Nominees are brought to the program's attention through a constantly changing...