Source: CCTV.com

03-30-2007 16:47

For many the image of the "American West" is still shaped by the "Western" - a paperback and celluloid fantasy world of gunslingers and outlaws. Now a new generation of American artists is exploring the full diversity and complexities of the Great American Landscape.

For many people, these classic movies are the American West. And the familiar images offer an easy entry point into an exhibition whose multi-layered messages are yet to be revealed.

The exhibition, called "Out West, the Great American Landscape" looks at the American West as represented by contemporary American art. This includes over sixty paintings, landscape photography from National Geographic magazine, and the posters of old western movies.

In the dim light, the posters - often frames lifted from the black and white originals and colored by hand - exude a deep sense of nostalgia. In fact the American West has always been a land of dreams. Its portrayal as a "promised land" to the early settler-pioneers was one of the founding myths of American culture.

Heading West

Beardsley, whose oil-on-canvass, "Heading West" is part of the exhibition, was born and grew up in Colorado - one of the seven states that make up the American West which also includes Montana, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.