Posts Tagged ‘Buffalo Bill Historical Center’
Jackson artist Kathy Wipfler’s superb plein air paintings are the centerpiece of a new show at the Simpson Gallagher Gallery, in Cody, Wyoming. Wipfler & The Boys: A Reunion of Friends opens at Simpson Gallagher, 1161 Sheridan Avenue, on Thursday, September 22, 2011. An opening reception takes place that evening, 5:00-8:00 pm.
Many plein air artists would consider giving up their good painting hand in favor of learning how to paint with their other hand, if it meant being showcased at Sue Simpson Gallagher’s gallery. Wipfler’s fellow artists, the “boys,” are cream-of-the-crop plein air painters Bob Barlow, T. Allen Lawson, Ralph Oberg, Geoff Parker, Matt Smith, Skip Whitcomb and Dan Young.
But enough about them…let’s get back to Wipfler!
This show is a story about the story of how a group of plein air painters met, painted together, grew together and ultimately became contemporary Western masters. The show will include a wide
variety of landscapes, as well as some wildlife paintings, from expansive panels to smaller works.
Wipfler had been in Jackson several years, “hanging out” at the Powder River Gallery, then owned by Jenny Promack. The gallery featured painters like Whitcomb, Hollis Williford and Barlow. The gallery also carried works by deceased masters— Charlie Russell letters, and Frank Tenney Johnson studies, Caitlins and Boreins. Wipfler remembers great gatherings of painting friends regularly taking place at the gallery.
“Jenny’s father took the Cowboy Hall of Fame from an empty shell of a building and opened it up with no federal funding,” Wipfler says. “And he started the show called NAWA–North American Western Artists. Jenny grew up around a lot of artists, and her dad was in Oklahoma City doing that project.”
Wipfler recalls how how she and her colleagues bonded and grew. “When Tim Lawson moved to town he called and said ‘Let’s go painting together.’ So we did, fairly often, and Tim and I were in the same galleries, like Powder River–and then we moved to Main Trail Gallery. Eventually we both went to Partners Gallery, which ended up being the Moynihan Gallery. Then, before Moynihan closed, I went to Trailside. Tim, Bob and I were gallery pals.”
Over the years, artists came in and out of Jackson, especially in the fall, long before Jackson’s Fall Arts Festival was created, long before the term “plein air painting” became popular. Wipfler and “the boys” got together to paint for a week or two; they’d go out painting every day. Wildlife artists came, too, and that genre developed locally. Plein air gained ground in the 90′s; small “push-out” paint boxes allowed professionals and hobbyists to paint easily outdoors, packing their tools on a horse or backpack.
“Ned Jacob was a mentor, and he was taught by Bob Lougheed and John Clymer and Bettina Steinke–and they were trained by the “old time guys” in New York,” relates Wipfler. Howard Pyle and the illustrators taught artists they had to work from life. Seeing the real color, seeing the real light. We learned the tradition of the New York and Chicago schools of painting from life. The great traditionalists had full lives as illustrators before they ever went to easel painting. And they taught the people who taught us.”
Wipfler notes that illustrative artists were trained formally. New England based artists like Norman Rockwell churned out work on demand for advertising companies. Close proximity to New York allowed them to take their work there. Works had a formal structure and superb draftsmanship; illustrators were telling specific stories.
For 25 years Simpson Gallagher watched Wipfler become the touchstone for her fellow artists, making her mark in a predominately male profession. She’s long encouraged Wipfler to do a show, but the artist demurred. Wipfler says she’s not a loner on purpose, but prefers to paint by herself, a change from her earlier years when days were spent painting with friends.
“I do better work when I’m not in a crowd. ‘Cause the crowd’s so much fun and work is work—-I’m getting better at painting in a crowd, lately,” Wipfler laughs. She agreed to the Cody show
“partly because I’m the only woman and partly because that was how Sue could get me to do a show! She has some great collectors over in Cody; one of those is the person who got my painting in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center!”
“There are many sources of inspiration for this show. It is partly my story too, so I know it well and think it is a story worth telling,” Simpson Gallagher notes. “Kathy is a peacemaker and makes sure that her friends stay connected. She is not competitive in a debilitating way. She only strives to be the best she can be. She was always game to go out painting no matter the time or temperature. She was good company. She was a positive influence and always buoyed every one else up.
It is inspirational for me to see the respect, admiration and love the artists have for Kathy and she has for them. I hope this show will reflect the rare and wondrous, broad-ranging friendship between independent individuals who share a history, experiences, a passion for painting, especially in the outdoors, and the Art Spirit!”
When prompted, Wipfler acknowledges the show is a highpoint in her career. “There are thousands of artists that would literally kill me if that meant they could have my spot in Sue’s gallery,” she says. “People want to be in that gallery badly. You walk in and you can feel the love for the art and their friendships with the artists and the meaning behind it all.” www.simpsongallaghergallery.com
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This just in!!! Lucy Grogan, Jackson Hole Art Auction Coordinator, sends the following:
Jackson, WY…The fifth annual Jackson Hole Art Auction was held on September 17th at the Center for the Arts in Jackson, Wyoming. Hosted by Trailside Galleries and Gerald Peters Gallery, more than 88% of the featured 250 lots sold, realizing over $9,000,000 in sales. As the auction got under way at 12:30 pm, more than 300 people filled the seats of the auditorium, with some 400 registered bidders. Bidding was very active with close to 300 phone bids and absentee bids. Internet bidders also participated in much of the sale. In just its fifth year, the Jackson Hole Art Auction has clearly distinguished itself as a destination event, with consignors and collectors from all across the country and abroad, including Russia, Ireland, England, and Switzerland.
The live audience broke into enthusiastic applause when Frederic Remington’s painting “He Lay Where He Had Been Jerked, Still as a Log”, a 24 ¼ x 36 ¼ oil on canvas, estimated at $1,000,000-$1,500,000, sold for $1,583,000. Other highlights include Bob Kuhn’s painting “Study of a Cougar”, a small 16 x 12 inch acrylic on masonite, estimated at $50,000-$75,000, sold for $90,000; Charlie Dye’s painting, “Texas Brush Popper”, a 20 x 24 oil on board, estimated at $20,000 – $30,000, sold for $74,750; Frederick Remington’s iconic bronze “Bronco Buster #16” estimated at $400,000 – $600,000, sold for $488,750; John Clymer’s painting “Marie Dorian – Winter Refuge, 1814”, a 40 x 30 oil on board, estimated $200,000 – $300,000, sold for $391,000.
From the Buffalo Bill Historical Center comes this release:
According to Michelle Anne Delaney, Curator of the Photographic History Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, New York photographer Gertrude Käsebier embarked on a deeply personal project in 1898.
“Her new undertaking was inspired by viewing the grand parade of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West troupe en route to New York City’s Madison Square Garden,” Delaney explains. “Within a matter of weeks, Käsebier began a unique and special project photographing the Sioux Indians traveling with the show, formally and informally, in her 5th Avenue studio.”
Delaney brings Käsebier’s work to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in an exhibition titled: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Warriors: Photographs by Gertrude Käsebier, on view in the John Bunker Sands Photography Gallery April 10 – August 8. On Friday, April 9, 5 – 7 p.m., a Patrons Preview for Historical Center members precedes the public opening April 10.
Delaney describes the collection as “original platinum and gum-bichromate photographs printed from original glass negatives, pictograph drawings made by the Sioux Indians while at Käsebier’s studio, historic camera and studio equipment, and select items representing Buffalo Bill’s Wild West from the Smithsonian and Historical Center collections.
“These prints rank among the most compelling of her celebrated body of work,” Delaney continues. “Eventually, she became the leading portraitist of her time and an extraordinary art photographer. Since 1969, more than one hundred of these photographs have been preserved in the Photographic History Collection at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.”
The man responsible for conceiving the initial idea for the Papers of William F. Cody documentary editing project, “one of the most significant scholarly works in the history of the Center,” is leaving the Buffalo Bill Historical Center (BBHC) to take a new post as Director of the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Dr. Kurt Graham has, in four years of phenomenal expansion at the BBHC, made possible the digitizing of “tens of thousands of historical photographs, documents, correspondence, and maps…” Graham spearheaded the launching of the digital project–now available on line–throughout the U.S. and Europe. Graham’s tenure also brought new staff and equipment, updated space, and a remarkable $1.5 million in grant monies to the BBHC. The Papers of William F. Cody launched with editors throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Graham, the Housel Director of the McCracken Research Library and Co-director of the Cody Institute for Western American Studies at BBHC, is the creative force that made it all happen. So says Maryanne Andrus, Director of Education and Co-director for Western American Studies.
According to Andrus, as managing editor, Graham “…assembled a team of editors in the United States and Europe who are producing edited print volumes and a digital archive of Cody-related material. This papers project will literally take Bill Cody and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West to the world once again and will be a feather in the cap of the Historical Center for many years to come.” The project, she says, is among the most significant scholarly works in the BBHC’s history.
Graham, who was raised in Wyoming’s Big Horn country, says he’s not leaving because of a sense of running his course at the BBHC; rather, an opportunity to direct the Salt Lake institution “fell out of the sky.” He says he and his family will miss Cody and the experience of being such an integral part of the BBHC’s evolution as a potent cultural presence.
“Kurt’s myriad contributions to the Center in leadership and scholarship have been stunning,” Andrus continues. “His vision for extending the reach of the Center beyond the walls of the museum will be sorely missed. Under his direction, the McCracken has taken on a completely different look and feel. The McCracken is a completely different institution than it was before.”
For more information, phone the BBHC at 307.578.4014. To see the BBHC’s digital collections, click here.
Photographer Robert Turner’s large format, color landscape photography show “Rare Places in a Rare Light” is on display at the Buffalo Bill Cody Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. It remains on display in the BBHC’s John Bunker Sand Photography Gallery through July 31.
Forty-three images make up the show, which has traveled to notable natural history museums at Harvard University and the Mumm Napa Fine Art Photography Gallery. The exhibit showcases Turner’s landscape shots of vistas in Utah, California, Maine and New Mexico…and of Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest and Yellowstone National Park.
“There are times when my camera frames a scene that sweeps 50 miles to the horizon without a trace of human life. Those times are rare and thrilling,” says Robert “Bob” Turner. “More often, I work to frame out the footprint of man on the landscape.”
I’m not familiar with any mantras saying human beings should be included in wildlife photography in order to show scale, even though Turner says one exists. If it does, he’s not a disciple of that photography sect.
” As a species, we have the capacity to respond to the essence of wildness in a place, even if that place is only an island in the larger sea of human commotion,” says Turner. “When [a photograph] works, it is often because I’ve managed to capture a
fleeting moment of light, color, motion, or stillness that gives the image a sense of heightened reality. I’m left feeling that I have witnessed something that has transcended the realm of ordinary experience.”
The historical center’s education department is working with Turner for lecture and workshop opportunities in late July. Details will be forthcoming later this spring. Monitor www.bbhc.org for more information.
An affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the BBHC is open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily. For general information, visit www.bbhc.org or call 307.587.4771.
The Buffalo Bill Historical Center (BBHC ) in Cody will receive $190,000 to study and digitize William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s personal papers. The earmark, part of the 2009 Federal Budget Bill, also known as the Omnibus Bill, was introduced by then Representative Barbara Cubin. Cubin left office in January.
Lee Haines, BBHC’s Director of Public Relations, says it will most likely take several months to receive the funds. Once received, the money will be used to create three new jobs: an editorial assistant and two researchers.
“We anticipate that the entire project will be completed within three years,” says Haines. “That said, we don’t plan to wait three years before we begin to share what we have found and make information available online.”
What shape the information will take as it is presented to the public is unclear, but Haines says it will probably be organized much like chapters in a book.
Why is a bill sponsored by an out-of-office representative still alive?
Federal budgets are planned two years in advance. Budgets are combed over and passed on to the Administration, which then submits it to Congress. The idea is to get it ironed out before the fiscal year the money is to be spent. It all bounces around, is adjusted, and moves from agency to Congress to the Administration and back before being signed.
“Museums everywhere are trying to realize such projects so that people can have access to information,” says National Museum of Wildlife Art CEO Jim McNutt. “We have our collection online, and any such project is worthy no matter where the funding comes from. I can’t comment on the BBHC’s process, but I’m very much in favor of such projects.”
The earmark has been widely questioned. “Taxpayers for Common Sense,” a watchdog group, singled out the BBHC funding, gaining the project national attention. Critics, including Republican Senator John McCain, tagged it as typical wasteful pork barrel spending. Proponents argue Bill Cody’s papers are a national treasure and should be preserved via federal funding.
In other fundraising efforts, the BBHC has secured $310,000 from private donors and $300,000 from the Wyoming State Legislature.
In a February 25 statement, House Representative Cynthia Lummis said, “Congressional leaders are turning a blind eye to the plight of millions of Americans by passing this bloated pork-laden spending bill.”
The BBHC takes issue. “This funding request is a normal part of the process that museums and many other institutions go through to secure funding, not only for particular projects, but for general operating support,” Bruce Eldredge, Buffalo Bill Historical Center Executive Director and CEO, said. “This request will provide additional support for what we consider to be important scholarly work. It’s unfortunate that some people appear to regard scholarship as unnecessary.”
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