Maynard Dixon embellished themes that encompassed the timeless truth of the majestic western landscape, the humanity of its memorable people, and the religious mysticism of the Native American. In an attempt to uncover the spirit of the American West, Dixon roamed its plains, mesas, and deserts—drawing, painting, and expressing his creative personality in poems, essays, and letters. Written in a very personal style, this biography includes anecdotes from Dixon’s children, historical vignettes, and interviews with those who knew the artist.

How does museum location shape the interpretation of an art object by critics, curators, art historians, and others? To what extent is the value of a work of art determined by its location? Providing a close examination of individual works of American art in relation to gallery and museum location, this anthology presents case studies of paintings, sculpture, photographs, and other media that explore these questions about the relationship between location and the prescribed meaning of art. It takes an alternate perspective in that it provides in-depth analysis of works of art that are less well known than the usual American art suspects, and in locations outside of art museums in major urban cultural centers. By doing so, the contributors to this volume reveal that such a shift in focus yields an expanded and more complex understanding of American art. Close examinations are given to works located in small and mid-sized art museums throughout the United States, museums that generally do not benefit from the resources afforded by more powerful cultural establishments such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Works of art located at institutions other than art museums are also examined. Although the book primarily focuses on paintings, other media created from the Colonial Period to the present are considered, including material culture and craft. The volume takes an inclusive approach to American art by featuring works created by a diverse group of artists from canonical to lesser-known ones, and provides new insights by highlighting the regional and the local.

Vividly illustrated and exhaustively researched and documented, Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts weaves a sweeping tapestry of artists' attempts to capture the majesty, rare beauty, and raw danger of Utah's frontier West. A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF ARTISTS WHO PAINTED SOUTHERN UTAH, INCLUDING: Solomon Nunes Carvalho Frederick S. Dellenbaugh John Heber Stansfield William Keith Samuel Coleman Thomas Moran Minerva B. K. Teichert Maynard Dixon LeConte Stewart J. Roman Andrus Birger Sandzén Everett Ruess Georgia O'Keeffe Max Ernst Alfred Lambourne Henry L. A. Culmer Donald Beauregard

Arranged in alphabetical order, these 5 volumes encompass the history of the cultural development of America with over 2300 entries.

This second volume in Kevin Starr's passionate and ambitious cultural history of the Golden State focuses on the turn-of-the-century years and the emergence of Southern California as a regional culture in its own right. "How hauntingly beautiful, how replete with lost possibilities, seems that Southern California of two and three generations ago, now that a dramatically diferent society has emerged in its place," writes Starr. As he recreates the "lost California," Starr examines the rich variety of elements that figured in the growth of the Southern California way of life: the Spanish/Mexican roots, the fertile land, the Mediterranean-like climate, the special styles in architecture, the rise of Hollywood. He gives us a broad array of engaging (and often eccentric) characters: from Harrision Gray Otis to Helen Hunt Jackson to Cecil B. DeMille. Whether discussing the growth of winemaking or the burgeoning of reform movements, Starr keeps his central theme in sharp focus: how Californians defined their identity to themselves and to the nation.

Presents reproductions of the 42 black-and-white drawings by Maynard Dixon owned by the University of Museum of Art, accompanied by an essay on the artist by Adeline Karpiscak.

Features the art collection of William B Ruger, the famed arms-maker, who passed away in June 2002. Christie's conducted a multi-million dollar auction in December 2002 of the paintings that appear in the book. The book includes approximately 20 paintings sold by Christies, NY and includes 83 colour photos of William B Ruger's private collection. The pieces depict the American West, hunting, wildlife, historical and classic art, and seascapes by artists such as Frederic S Remington, Maxfield Parrish, Albert Bierstadt, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait and many others. Seth Eastman's 'Winnebago Encampment', Alexander Phimister Proctor's 'The Indian Warrior', and Frank Tenney Johnson's 'Cowboy on Horseback' are examples.