In the 1930s and 1940s; along with other members of a loosely affiliated group of artists known as the Dallas Nine; Jerry Bywaters pioneered the style later termed “Lone Star Regionalism.rdquo; Working with equal ability in oil; watercolor; tempera; and pastel; Bywaters portrayed the natural world; towns; and people of Arizona; Colorado; New Mexico; and West Texas. This stunning retrospective volume of Bywatersrsquo;s paintings—more than forty of them arranged in a full-color gallery—vividly interprets the American Southwest. Underlying all of Bywatersrsquo;s work was some perspective on the interaction of people and the land. With character always the central feature; his portraiture featured a wide variety of subjects; from a prominent Dallas architect to two anonymous nuns the artist saw on a train and an unnamed member of the Navajo tribe he met on a visit to Shiprock; Arizona. He also depicted individuals in various tasks of everyday life; whether cowboys at a rodeo; oil field workers wrestling with a drill bit; or Mexican women washing clothes in a stream. In addition to the color gallery; the text is illustrated with letters; photographs; and ephemera from the artistrsquo;s papers; the Jerry Bywaters Collection on Art of the Southwest; housed in SMUrsquo;s Jake and Nancy Hamon Arts Library. Essays by three scholars who knew and worked with Bywaters—Sam Ratcliffe; John Lunsford; and Francine Carraro—add context and detail about his contributions; and an introduction by William H. Gerdts sets the stage for appreciating the art. Bywaters directed the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (now the Dallas Museum of Art) for two decades beginning in 1943. This book originated in conjunction with the exhibition; “Jerry Bywaters; Interpreter of the Southwest;rdquo; at SMUrsquo;s Meadows Museum of Art; November 30; 2007–February 24; 2008.
#1445917 in eBooks 2012-12-13 2012-12-13File Name: B00AXS8OS4
Review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. clear writing about complex questionsBy deanna pindellThe author considers each artist and their work carefully and empathetically. He actually understands the complexity of the works from the artists point of view; while also striving to place the works in a philosophical context and an art-critical context. It is rare that I; as a professional artist; feel like my own experience as an artist has been respected by the critic who writes about the artwork ... Steve Baker clearly "gets it" as an artist himself.One of the underlying themes in these essays is that art is not meant to settle questions about the human-animal relationship; while philosophy and science do intend to define answers or at least boundaries. The range of artists chosen offers a significant range of ethical and aesthetic questions for the reader to chew on. An excellent contribution to the posthumanities studies.