Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West announced the debut opening of New Beginnings: An American Story of Romantics and Modernists in the West. This new exhibition offers a fresh Western art experience through 100 works by 70 well-known artists including those from the Taos Society of Artists and less-recognized artists, who were living and working in the 1920s and 1930s in Santa Fe and Taos, N.M. – important art colonies then and now.

The New Beginnings exhibition, which will travel to four additional institutes across the U.S. into 2021, features paintings, works on paper, photographs and sculptures from the celebrated Tia Collection including never-before-shown works. This is the first time three-year-old Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, a Smithsonian Affiliate, is debuting another organization’s traveling exhibition.

The exhibition offers a crisp view of artwork covering nearly a century, from 1888 to 1983, showing the evolution of art in New Mexico from 19th century Classicism and Romanticism to early 20th century Modernism with a focus on artworks and artists who operated on the transnational stage.

Everyone is shaped by their times and the artworks in this exhibition were created by people who lived through rapid industrialization, two world wars, the 1918 flu epidemic, the global economic reversals of the Great Depression and increasingly sophisticated levels of commercialization. As the U.S. shifted from agrarian ideas to urban manufacturing, artists shifted their focus, too, from perpetuating European traditions to forging an aesthetic rooted in the Americas. Northern New Mexico serves as the backdrop for this transformation and is the focus of this exhibition.

“In the 1920s and 30s artists came to Northern New Mexico from all over the nation and globe – from New York City and other East Coast locales, as well as from across Europe. These innovative artists were inspired by the light, landscape, culture, energy and the community,” said Laura Finlay Smith, Tia Collection Curator, Santa Fe, who organized the New Beginnings exhibition.

“The idea to feature Santa Fe and Taos artists together in an exhibition is not new. The whole idea behind this Santa Fe and Taos exhibition is to maintain this historic material and make it fresh and relevant to the 21st century, especially appealing to today’s younger audiences. So we took new approaches for the exhibition by mixing things up a bit to showcase a rephrasing of why this work is so very relevant. For example, we are mingling well-known artists beside those less recognized and Hispanic and Native American content side-by-side to bring together a powerful ‘contrast narrative’ to share a broader view and fresh perspective of the artists of this important region and time.”

Several years in the making, the New Beginnings exhibition features artists who were originally from outside the American West and also includes a significant number of women artists. The exhibition is organized across three key themes including “Land & Sky” with a seasonal landscape focus; “Cultures” showcasing the enriching exchanges between artists and Native American and Hispano people with content covering ceremony and rituals, a sense of place and everyday life; and “Working from Life” with its compelling still lifes, portraits and Leon Gaspard’s kitchen table with its hand painted surfaces including four side chairs alive with scenes of Russia, China, Mongolia and North Africa.

“The community of Scottsdale is tremendously proud to host in its museum the first opening of this unique traveling exhibition and featuring never-before-shown artworks from this renowned collection,” said Mike Fox, Director and CEO for the museum. “We are thrilled that our young institution is seen as worthy to be one of a number of other major institutions throughout the country to be sharing the creative inspiration and energy behind the New Beginnings exhibition and its fresh take on Western art. We know our residents, tourists and members will enjoy the exhibition, and we expect to attract new audiences to take in the captivating regional stories represented in the artwork as well.”

The New Beginnings exhibition will be available for viewing today through Sept. 2019. Special women-artist focus programming led by Dr. Tricia Loscher, Assistant Museum Director: Collections, Exhibitions and Research, is scheduled for April. The New Beginnings catalog will be available in the museum store for $45 softcover and $65 hardcover.

“We are both honored and excited that the rich cultural narratives of the American West continue to be told with the New Beginnings exhibition,” said Loscher. “The Tia Collection has amassed an outstanding inventory of works that is at once an expression of the New Mexican artists and evidence of its collector’s discerning eye, and the artwork presented gives us the opportunity to rediscover and reflect – specifically upon the often overlooked contributions of the western American artist. This exhibition aligns not only with Western Spirit’s mission to showcase important Western art, but also to reclaim a place for artists who are little-known or under-recognized, including women artists.”

Dedicated to telling stories of the Greater Western Region with both permanent and rotating exhibitions, this is the second of eight new exhibitions coming to three-year-old Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, a Smithsonian Affiliate, in the 2018-19 season. New Acquisitions from the Herberger Collection launched in Sept. Six more exhibition openings are forthcoming through Nov. 2019.

About Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West

Since its opening in Jan. 2015, Scottsdale’s Museum of the West has become a Smithsonian Affiliate organization and is one of only eight affiliate partners in Arizona. The museum is also a highly rated Scottsdale attraction on TripAdvisor and was named the “Nation’s Best Western Museum” (2018 Readers’ Choice, True West magazine). Scottsdale's Museum of the West features regularly changing and permanent exhibits of Western and Native American art and artifacts, entertaining events and informative programs that bring the West’s heritage, culture and community to life. Permanent exhibitions continuously on display include Canvas of Clay: Hopi Pottery Masterworks from The Allan and Judith Cooke Collection, which features 65 of the finest examples of Hopi pottery, and The Abe Hays Family Spirit of the West Collection, a showcase of more than 1,400 saddles, spurs, cowboy gear and other Old West artifacts. 

Featured Collections include: Alper Bronze John Coleman Collection; Cooke Hopi Pottery Collection; Hays Legendary Cowboy Collection; Peterson Early and Contemporary Western Art Collection; and Strickland Golden West Poster Collection. 

Buildings and Campus

Owned by the City of Scottsdale and managed by Scottsdale Museum of the West (a non-profit 501(c)3 organization), Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West features an award-winning 43,000-square-foot, two-story main building designed by Phoenix-based architectural firm Studio Ma. The museum campus was designed by landscape architect Colwell Shelor of Phoenix and features low-water use desert plantings. Both indoor and outdoor spaces are certified as LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold, conserving precious natural resources, while raising public awareness of their vital importance to the Western region.

Scottsdale’s Museum of the West also features the beautiful outdoor Christine and Ted Mollring Sculpture Courtyard with a rotating selection of sculptures. The 135-seat Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Theater/Auditorium hosts performances, special programs and events. The Sue and Robert Karatz Museum Store offers a rare and wide selection of Western-themed art and gifts. “Spirit Is” is an exclusive 10-minute must-see film shown on the hour at the museum that captures the spirit of the West.

Museum Hours

Tues., Wed., Fri., Sat.: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

Thursday: 9:30 a.m.-9 p.m. (November-April) & 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. (May-October)

Sunday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Closed Monday

Admission Prices

Adults: $15

Seniors (65+) and Active Military: $13

Students (Full-time with ID) and Children (6-17 years): $8

Members and Children 5 and under: FREE

Thursdays, November-April, Scottsdale residents with proof of residence (e.g., driver’s license, utility bill) receive FREE museum admission.

Native American guests receive free museum admission through December 30, 2018.

Location

3830 N. Marshall Way, Scottsdale, AZ 85251

Scottsdale’s Museum of the West is located in Old Town Scottsdale, one block west of Scottsdale Road at First Street. The museum is readily accessible from throughout the metro Phoenix area and is within easy walking distance of numerous art galleries, retail stores and restaurants. The free Downtown Scottsdale trolley stops at the museum campus.

General Contact:

480-686-9539

www.scottsdalemuseumwest.org