A History of 'Western' Art

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A scene from the movie "Bucking Broadway" by John Ford, 1917.

A scene from the movie "Bucking Broadway" by John Ford, 1917.

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William S. Hart (centre) in "The Gun Fighter," 1917

William S. Hart (centre) in "The Gun Fighter," 1917

gelatin silver print (Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Seaver Centre Collection)

Growing up in Saskatchewan’s Red Pheasant First Nation, Cree artist and curator Gerald McMaster was spellbound by the Lone Ranger but had no interest in the masked cowboy’s “Indian” sidekick Tonto.

“As a boy, I only knew good from bad: Cowboy good, Indian bad,” says McMaster. Such is the power of Western movie stereotypes. They’re with us still.

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Unknown Cheyenne artist, "Vincent Price Ledger Book, p. 202," about 1875-1878

Unknown Cheyenne artist, "Vincent Price Ledger Book, p. 202," about 1875-1878

graphite and coloured pencil on paper (courtesy of Donald Ellis Gallery, New York)

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Wendy Red Star, "Indian Summer," from the series “Four Seasons,” 2006

Wendy Red Star, "Indian Summer," from the series “Four Seasons,” 2006

chromogenic print (collection of Brian Tschumper; courtesy of the artist)

McMaster relates the anecdote in a catalogue essay for a sprawling art exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts about Western movies. The exhibition, Once Upon a Time … The Western, traces the history and aesthetics of cowboy films, unmasking them as the myth that became “reality” and the impact they still have on “pressing concerns of today,” such as racism, misogyny and gun violence. Although Donald Trump is not mentioned by name, the exhibition encourages visitors to contemplate characters like the brawling, womanizing, politically incorrect U.S. president as a stereotype lifted straight from the Western.

The exhibition is a joint project of the Montreal museum and the Denver Art Museum. Co-curators are Montreal’s Mary-Dailey Desmarais and Denver’s Thomas Brent Smith. Outside advisers include McMaster and Quebecer Stéphane Aquin (now in Washington, D.C., at the Hirshhorn Museum). The show opened in Denver last spring. The Montreal iteration runs until Feb. 4. No other venues are planned. Included are scores of film clips and both the artworks that inspired Westerns and those inspired by Westerns.

The curators trace back the look and ethos of the Western to pre-cinematic, 19th-century paintings and photographs from both American and Canadian artists. The works of American painter George Catlin and Canadian photographer William Notman are among the dozens exhibited.

The Western’s most famous director is John Ford (Stagecoach, Fort Apache), who boasted of creating scenes inspired by the paintings of Charles Russell and Frederic Remington. Ford’s films, many starring John Wayne, tended to perpetuate rather than diminish stereotypes.

A new era began in the 1960s with Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns, which paid homage but simultaneously deconstructed the genre. Subsequent Westerns or their descendents, such as Little Big Man, Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy, Brokeback Mountain and The Hateful Eight, questioned the racism, sexism, homophobia and violence of Westerns.

Indigenous artists have waged their own attack on Western stereotypes. Canadian content flourishes in this part of the exhibition with such works as Albertan Adrian Stimson’s Beyond Redemption about the bison slaughter.

Toronto’s Kent Monkman prods Westerns’ racial and gender stereotypes with his campy installation Boudoir de Berdache, the teepee bedroom of the artist’s transgender alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. B.C.’s Brian Jungen offers The Prince, a cigar-store Indian created from baseball gloves.

Nathalie Bondil, the Montreal museum’s director, notes that Westerns are “cultural history, not factual history.” But truth remains elusive for many still trying to mimic (or shed) Western stereotypes. Just ask McMaster, who wonders to this day why, as a boy, Westerns made him “cheer against my own interests.”