O
ver the course of time, the West has
lured people with its grandeur and
mystique—including the places,
wildlife and cast of characters. In the upcoming
exhibition Tales of the West at Gerald Peters
Gallery, Michael Cassidy and Jamie Burnes willpresent artwork that honors this past with a nod
toward the contemporary. Cassidy’s artwork
touches on the romance of the West through his
Western Pulp series of paintings based on old
“dime” novels and early Western movie posters
of the 1920s and 1930s. Burnes’ wildlifesculptures show the duality of the creatures—
their docile nature and dominance—in
abstracted wood and metal forms.
Cassidy’s paintings take on the look of these
old posters and magazine covers, but they are
his own creations that appeal “not only to the
romantic impressions of the West but the design
aspects of the way it was promoted in movies
and print.” His painting Thrilling Western,
Rustlers of the Rio is a nod to the nocturnal
Western paintings of Frank Tenney Johnson,
who Cassidy calls the master of that genre. In
his piece, Cassidy shows a cowboy on a white
horse, perhaps getting ready to call it a night
as the moonlight is his only guide in the wild.
Star Western, The Danger Trail depicts a
man in a 10-gallon “Gus” cowboy hat, which
is something Cassidy loves to include in his
artwork. “There’s a Gus hat in almost every
painting of a cowboy I’ve ever done,” he says.
“They probably weren’t real practical to wear
on the range. In the case of the West, it might
just be that the value of the Western ‘myth’
might be more important than the reality.”
Drawn to the tension between the organic
and the synthetic, Burnes’ sculptures explore
how one informs the other as archetypalWestern stories
M C
J B
UPCOMING SHOW
Up to 18 works
Aug. 9-Sept. 28, 2019
Gerald Peters Gallery
1005 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe,
NM 87501, (505) 954-5700
http://www.gpgallery.comSHOW LOCATION SANTA FE, NM
Jamie Burnes, Oscar, corten steel and
eastern red cedar, 20 x 33¾ x 12½”Michael Cassidy, Thrilling
Western, Rustlers of the Rio,
oil on linen, 69½ x 53¾”