Email
PrintKeeping the Old with the New
A growth in contemporary sculpture complements the valley’s traditional scene
Ben Roth’s Barnwood Lens hangs in the lobby of Hotel Terra in Teton Village.
Sculpture is one of the oldest forms of art. In 1999, Moroccan archeologists found a three-inch tall figure that is, give or take a few tens of thousands of years, 400,000 years old. (To be fair, some researchers say the rock, which does indeed look very much like a crude human form, is merely the result of fortuitous natural weathering … if that is the case, a 200,000- to 300,000-year-old figurine found in 1986 in Israel would be the world’s oldest piece of sculpture.) For comparison, DNA studies suggest modern humans originated about 200,000 years ago.
Sculpture may be older than homo sapiens, but we’re about tied when it comes to variety. For as many cultures as there have been and are in the world, there is a unique sculptural tradition – sculptures have been unearthed, and are still being created in, China, Egypt, South America, Europe, Micronesia. And, of course, within these sculpture-savvy cultures, there are many different styles of sculpture. Chinese sculpture includes both the Terracotta Warriors as well as intricate busts of emperors in jade.
Looking at Jackson Hole as a part of the modern American West culture, we have our own sculptural style and tradition, started back in the 1840s by the likes of Henry Kirke Brown and John Quincy Adams Ward. Both were looking to express a national identity with subjects uniquely American: Indians, cowboys, wildlife. Because these early artists were looking to showcase the American West, their work was completely representative. Each would spend hours upon hours studying the tiniest details of their subjects to ensure they got everything right in the execution. There was no interpretation. In 1848, Brown traveled to Mackinac Island in Michigan to observe the Ottawa and Chippewa people, creating sculptures (and drawings) based on his observations. Later, Ward traveled to the Dakotas to produce studies for a piece, Indian Hunter, which was installed in Central Park in 1868. Remington and Russell continued the tradition of creating sculpture capturing the American West.
And artists today continue in the footsteps of Brown, Ward, Remington and Russell. Walk into most any gallery in Jackson Hole and you’ll see representational Indians, cowboys and wildlife. But, as cultures before ours have, artists and galleries here are developing new styles. The American West has changed since Remington’s time; it makes sense for the sculpture coming out of it to have changed as well.
Ben Roth’s Barnwood Lens, hanging on the wall in the entrance of the new green Hotel Terra in Teton Village is about as far from a cowboy, Indian or moose as is possible: vertical wood slats, spaced perhaps three inches each apart and cut to form a circle. It still feels very much of the West though, albeit in this new, contemporary style. Roth’s piece is every bit as rugged as a Remington, but, with its geometry and precision, more orderly and tame. As its title might suggest, Lens is made from a material ubiquitous to the area, reclaimed barnwood. When Roth, who also works in metal, received the commission for the piece, he wasn’t directed to use a “Western” material, but, to go with the eco-friendliness of the hotel, a recycled material. “I didn’t have to think too long to come up with reclaimed barnwood,” he says. “What’s more recycled for our area than old barnwood?”
It isn’t just area artists redefining Western sculpture. Galleries are helping as well. At Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, you can see sculptures constructed of newspaper, steel and wax by Kalispell, Montana-based Kate Hunt. Definitely not traditional Western art, but Western art nonetheless, McCandless says. “Kate Hunt’s sculptures are related to our Western environment through her organic forms and creative use of newspaper as her material. The newspaper evolves over time to take on the hue of granite, or a softly tanned hide, both common in the West.”
While McCandless Contemporary is, well, totally contemporary, more common are galleries representing both artists treating traditional Western themes in a contemporary way and purely traditional artists. At the recently moved Diehl Gallery (now at 155 W. Broadway), owner Mariam Diehl represents a wide spectrum of styles: from the fantastical bronze heads of Ted Gall to hyper-realistic Indians by Dave McGary (who bills himself as the “master of realism in bronze”), and the sensual figures of Shray. One of the gallery’s most popular artists is Tim Cherry.
“I see Tim Cherry as a very contemporary sculptor,” Diehl says. “He handles a traditional theme, wildlife, in a very contemporary manner. His lines, as well as the materials he uses – he has recently started working in stainless steel – are very clean and modern,” she says. “Whimsical” has been used to describe Cherry’s style more than once. “I’ve found he appeals to collectors of both traditional and contemporary tastes. He’s also a great artist for those traditional collectors looking to move in a more contemporary direction.”
Like many traditional Western sculptors, Cherry grew up surrounded by the wildlife he is now modernizing. When he was 16, Cherry worked as a cook and wrangler for a hunting outfit and at 18, began guiding his own clients. Tim was always studying the animals he saw. Even though he doesn’t articulate every muscular ripple of a crouching puma as a traditional sculptor might, it is evident from looking at any of his pieces that he understands animal movement, behavior and personality. Jackson’s own National Museum of Wildlife Art agrees. It has named Cherry as the featured sculptor of this year’s Western Visions Show and Sale.
But the success of more contemporary sculptors like Cherry doesn’t mean traditional Western sculpture is dead. Far from it. Galleries representing contemporary artists have grown in recent years, but they are still outnumbered by traditional artists and galleries: Trailside Galleries, Legacy Gallery, Mountain Trails, West Lives On Gallery, Bill Nebeker, John Pettis, to name but a few traditional galleries and sculptors in Jackson.
“Traditional, representative bronze sculpture will always be an important part of Western art,” says Mark D. Tarrant, director at Mountain Trails. “The subject matter – wildlife, cowboys, Native Americans, mountain men and the romance of the Old West – is a natural for a story in bronze and there will always be artists wanting to tell it in that way.”
At Mountain Trails, Ken Rowe is a traditional Western sculptor in both subject matter and execution. In his Running Wild – two wolves running side-by-side – you can see fur flying in the air and muscles churning underneath. It doesn’t take much to imagine the pair sprinting across a field in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley.
Tarrant is quick to point out that traditional doesn’t mean typical or predictable. “It is quite possible to be a very competent sculptor – to be able to recreate every detail of an animal or person – but still lack whatever that magic is that makes someone stop and look at a piece,” Tarrant says. “Ken takes a typical pose and always finds some twist that makes it new and unique.”
The market has ample room for varied types of sculpture, Roth says.
“This is just a great time for sculpture in Jackson. Of course I’m speaking from the contemporary perspective because that is what I do and what I have really seen the climate change towards the past few years, but it’s not like it has to be one or the other. Jackson is proving it can handle both the traditional and contemporary.”
