Western American Art includes artistic work which depicts the subjects related to the Western American region, and was treated as impoverished, unwanted and unworthy art before the twentieth century, during which period it achieved respectability as a rewarding region for studying. The term holds a characteristic of narration that is different from the Modern art which focuses on abstraction. For the narration, Western American art focuses on subject than style. Considering as a national art, the subjects are distinct from the European art, namely, there is no elements from other region like Europe. Cowboys and Indians are two well-known subjects and they consist the important part of artistic work of Western American art, demonstrating the daily life and activities of cowboys and American Indian in western American.
Russell in 1907
Western American Art
Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe, 1770, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Thomas Moran, Shoshone Falls, Snake River, Idaho, c.1875, Chrysler Museum of Art
Maynard Dixon was an American artist. He was known for his paintings, and his body of work focused on the American West. Dixon is considered one of the finest artists having dedicated most of their art to the U.S. Southwestern cultures and landscapes at the end of the 19th-century and the first half of the 20th-century. He was often called "The Last Cowboy in San Francisco."
Dixon c. 1906
"Thunder Over Ship Rock" Steven Stern Fine Arts
Dixon contributed to the murals that adorn a banquet hall at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, including that of Queen Califia shown accompanied by two of her woman warriors
Maynard Dixon Home