FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 2, 2002

The Other Side of the West: Recreating New Icons of the American West

LUBBOCK, TX ­ The Museum of Texas Tech University is proud to present The Other Side of the West: Recreating New Icons of the American West scheduled to open December 8, and run through February 2, 2003. The Museum is located at the southeast corner of 4th Street and Indiana Avenue.

Art, combined with any word, evokes immediate associations, and when "Western" is added, it conjures up many misconceptions; the term "Western Art" can mean many things, most of them not helpful.

Truly, there is no "Western Art," only Art. Indeed, the innumerable marvelous paintings and sculptures dating from the 1800s to the present which capture the romance, drama, and magnificence of the land we call the West, communicate eloquently. Art in, of, and about the West is art with a capital "A."

To help communicate this essential point, a band of ten forward looking individuals, all renowned as artists, have united to bring us the exhibition, The Other Side of the West. This bold endeavor brings together painters who are working in, of, and about the West in a variety of styles and with widely disparate subject manner.

In their own words, they are out to "massage, twist, tweak, and sometimes shatter" traditional concepts of the art of the West. They are doing this not by parody or takeoff, but with a "sincere embrace of Western and Southwestern iconography."

The artists in this refreshing movement, strong in their own right, have achieved individual fame with Western imagery, yet refuse to be defined or categorized by it. John Axton, Nelson Boren, JD Challenger, Anne Coe, David DeVary, J.E. Knauf, Bill Schenck, Maria Sharylen, Miquel Martinez, and Ben Wright have no quarrel with other schools of art, rather their message is: the West holds many peoples, much beauty, and many paths.

This dynamic land with its unique people deserves the best that artists have to give from their own vision, beyond tradition and beyond stereotypes, and so strongly do the artists hold this vision of a vibrant, living art for the West that they have come together to bring it to a larger audience as one powerful voice and statement.

Presentation of this exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.