Bryant Baker News

Through some 65 bronze sculptures by 28 artists, the traveling exhibition The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925, opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 18, will explore the aesthetic and cultural impulses behind the creation of statuettes with American western themes so popular with audiences then and now.

At the turn of the 20th century, artistic representations of American Indians, cowboys and cavalry, pioneers and prospectors, and animals of the plains and the mountains served as visual metaphors for the Old West and, as such, were collected eagerly by an urban-based clientele. Through some 65 bronze sculptures by 28 artists, the traveling exhibition The American West in Bronze, 1850–1925, opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 18, will explore the aesthetic and cultural impulses behind the creation of statuettes with American western themes so popular with audiences then and now. It is the first full-scale museum exhibition devoted to the subject and brings together examples from public and private collections nationwide.

At the turn of the 20th century, artistic representations of American Indians, cowboys and cavalry, pioneers and prospectors, and animals of the plains and the mountains served as visual metaphors for the Old West and, as such, were collected eagerly by an urban-based clientele. Through some 65 bronze sculptures by 28 artists, the traveling exhibition The American West in Bronze, 1850–1925, opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art onDecember 18, will explore the aesthetic and cultural impulses behind the creation of statuettes with American western themes so popular with audiences then and now. It is the first full-scale museum exhibition devoted to the subject and brings together examples from public and private collections nationwide.

Through some 65 bronze sculptures by 28 artists, the traveling exhibition The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925, opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 18, will explore the aesthetic and cultural impulses behind the creation of statuettes with American western themes so popular with audiences then and now.