: The work of Herbert "Buck" Dunton (1878-1936), one of the
founding members of the Taos Society of Artists in New Mexico, is
the subject of "Taos Modern: Paintings by Herbert Dunton" from
the Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas, on view in the Alice
Pratt Brown Gallery in the Caroline Wiess Law Building of the
Museum of Fine Art, Houston, July 17-January 30.
This is the fourth in a series of exhibitions presented since
2001 in partnership with the Stark Museum of Art. The first
exhibition of Dunton's work at the MFAH took place in 1925, at
the peak of his popularity. Taos Modern presents ten paintings
and 20 oil sketches.
Like Frederic Remington, Dunton was an academically trained
artist who began his career as an illustrator of Western scenes.
Dunton's early works reflect a nostalgic ideal of the West - a
land of wide-open spaces and heroic cowboys. His fascination with
the West was such that he made a number of trips west between
1896 and 1911, working as a cowboy or hunter in the summers. He
first visited the village of Taos, N.M., in 1912, moved there
permanently in 1914, and, in 1925, became a founding member of
the first artist colony west of the Mississippi.
Dunton's early career coincided with the enormously popular
interest in the cowboy in the first years of the Twentieth
Century, and he was published in magazines such as Harper's
Monthly, Collier's and Cosmopolitan Magazine.
Later, in Taos, Dunton became increasingly preoccupied with
issues of color and form in response to modern artistic
developments and sensibilities. In contrast to some of his
colleagues who were drawn to a romanticized view of the American
Indian, Dunton chose as his subjects the thick foliage and animal
life of Taos's outlying areas. In works such as "McMullin Guide,"
circa 1934, and "October Gold," circa 1930, Dunton's dynamic
brushwork and painterly palette transform the canvases into
lyrical patterns of color and light. "Taos Modern" provides
visitors an opportunity to see his work in the context of the
MFAH's small but choice selection of Taos pictures, as well as
its large holdings of works by Remington.
The Stark Museum of Art, which opened to the public in 1978 as
one of many projects initiated by the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher
Stark Foundation, is considered one of the United States' fine
collections of Western American art. The collections of the
museum reflect the Stark family's interest in the land, the
wildlife and the people of the American West. H.J. Lutcher Stark,
who focused on acquiring American paintings, drawings,
sculptures, books, folios and prints, formed the collection
primarily in the 1940s.
Initially Stark's interests focused upon the works of
contemporary Southwestern painters including the Taos Society of
Artists whom he encountered and befriended en route to his
vacation ranch in Colorado. Over the years, his interests
expanded to include the earlier works of such artists of the
American West as George Catlin, Alfred Jacob Miller, John Mix
Stanley, Paul Kane, Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Remington.
"Taos Modern" is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
and the Stark Museum of Art, and is presented under the direction
of Emily Neff, curator of American painting and sculpture.
The Caroline Wiess Law Building is at 1001 Bissonnet Street.
The museum is open to the public Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 am to
5 pm; Thursday, 10 am to 9 pm, Friday and Saturday, 10 am to 7
pm, and Sunday, 12:15 to 7 pm. For information, 713-639-7300.
