The West and Western Art as Seen from the South and Far East

When looking at the West as a region, your location determines your view.

Are you standing inside looking out or outside looking in?

Are you looking west from “back east” across Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, or looking east from the (Far) East across California, Oregon and Washington

When looking at the West, do you see Chinatowns or cattle drives?

What about looking north to the West? Looking from Mexico.

The Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth presents a pair of fascinating exhibitions challenging how we imagine and “see” the West and Western art by considering the region from eastern and southern vantage points. Vantage points underrepresented in historic Western art.

‘East of the Pacific’

For the millions of Americans who came west from the east on wagon trains or automobiles, other millions came west from the Far East by boat. “East of the Pacific: Making Histories of Asian American Art” explores the continuing artistic influence of people of Asian descent and their indispensable role in shaping American art and culture. Their inclusion into histories of the nation’s art and culture broadly has been more readily welcomed than it has narrowly within the genre of Western art. That is changing, thankfully.

The exhibition asks the question, “what would it mean to understand the United States as being situated not just west of the Atlantic, but east of the Pacific,” reorienting our perception of America and American art, but also the West and Western art.

No offense intended, but isn’t it silly how few depictions of San Francisco appear in conventional Western art, as if this enormous and influential city didn’t have a singularly important role in the story of the West? The settlement and building of the West. “Western” migration from the East by sea.

Look at Japanese born Chiura Obata’s (1885-1975) Yosemite Falls (1937) on view at the Carter and try explaining how it’s not Western art. How it doesn’t belong. What’s a more western motif than Yosemite?

“East of the Pacific” marks the second time this year I’ve been wowed by Obata’s work and it’s should-be connection to canonical Western art.

Dig Chinese born Chee Chin S. Cheung Lee’s (1896-1966) Rock Spire (1948), a gorgeous Western landscape I’m sure even Stephen C. Datz would appreciate. Cheung Lee was living in California painting a western scene. That’s Western art to me. Remington wasn’t born “out West” either.

Consider American born Koho Yamamoto’s (b. 1922) Untitled (1944) watercolor and explain how it’s not Western art. A California artist living in the West painting a Western scene. Because that Western scene happens to reveal her time at Japanese internment camp during World War II, that disqualifies it from the Western art genre? I don’t think so.

Sharing this tragic story of the West makes it even more Western.

Koho Yamamoto, 'Untitled,' 1944, watercolor on paper. Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University.

Most spectacularly, the exhibition’s paintings of Chinatowns upend and confront narrow perceptions of Western art. San Francisco born Martin Wong’s (1946-1999) Chinatown Dragon (1993) is one of the most dazzling paintings I’ve seen this year. How could any devote of Western art not want it included under the tent with Maynard Dixon and Tony Abeyta?

It’s brilliant.

And it’s Western. As western as Tombstone, AZ or Dodge City, KS.

Almost 50 artworks drawn from the permanent collection at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University spanning from the 1850s to today by 31 Asian American artists working in ceramics, drawings, paintings, photography, and prints are on view through November 30, 2025.

Three of presentation’s six sections stand out of particular interest for challenging conventional – settler colonial – notions of Western art.

“The East West Art Society” highlights Asian American members of the East West Art Society of San Francisco. Japanese born Tokio Ueyama’s (1889-1954) Monterey Cove (1924) in this section is as rich and magnificent a depiction of the California coast – of the West – as anything the Taos founders produced of their West. They weren’t originally from the West either.

Tokio Ueyama, 'Monterey Cove,' 1924, oil on canvas. Cantor Arts Center, Stanford

The Denver Art Museum concluded a powerful exhibition of Ueyama’s artworks produced as a prisoner inside the Amache Japanese American internment camp at Grenada, Colorado earlier this summer.

“Visions of Chinatown” brings fresh color and life to Western art centering San Francisco’s Chinatown, established in 1848. This section showcases artworks across a broad chronological range, created by Chinatown community members as well as Chinese artists who have drawn inspiration from Chinatown.

“After Executive Order 9066” returns to the injustice, bigotry, denial of human rights and due process inherent in the relocation of West Coast residents of Japanese descent. Issued after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066 authorized the forced evacuation – with almost no notice and with only what a person could carry – of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans to isolated detention centers and concentration camps across the West. The works in this section focus both on historical artworks created in these camps as well as contemporary works reflecting upon the aftereffects of Japanese American experiences in the internment camps.

Chuck Ramirez Photography

Having acquired San Antonio artist Chuck Ramirez’ (1962–2010) “Seven Days” 2003 photo series, the Carter puts the artworks on display through January 4, 2026, during “Seven Days: The Still Lifes of Chuck Ramirez.” The colorful and evocative images highlight seven community-centered celebrations in Texas, from a sugar-crushed child’s birthday party to a vibrant Día de los Muertos feast. The Carter is the only museum to own the full set of seven Ramirez photographs.

Born to a Mexican American father and White American mother, Ramirez crafted visually striking and conceptually rich photographs examining themes of heritage, memory, community, and material culture. The photos combine documentary, celebration, still life, and momento mori.

“Seven Days” offers an unprecedented look at these large-format photographs providing visitors an opportunity to explore Ramirez’s unique vision and artistic legacy up close. This, to me, is “immersive” art. Not cavernous rooms and digital light shows, rather artworks to lose yourself in. Hear children laughing. Smell the tamales. Taste the beer. Feel the tortilla chips in your fingers.

Chuck Ramirez, ‘Seven Days Dia de los Muertos,’ 2003, inkjet print. Amon Carter Museum of American Art, P2025.4. Copyright Estate of Chuck Ramirez. Photo courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Art

Each photograph portrays a still-life scene of food and leftovers after a celebration, composed with a visual language reminiscent of 17th-century Dutch and Spanish still-life paintings. Inspired by his career as a graphic designer for H-E-B, a large, Texas-based grocery store chain, Ramirez’s works reflect his deep understanding of advertising, consumerism, and cultural identity.

The photographs include familiar Texas and Mexican food products and brands, such as a cup from San Antionio restaurant Bill Miller Bar-B-Q, a Topo Chico glass bottle, and Lone Star Beer can. These objects create a tangible connection to Texan and Tejano culture while also evoking universal themes of celebration and loss. The joy of the party and the emotional crash following it.

In addition to the seven photographs, the exhibition also features a three-dimensional ofrenda, or altar, inspired by Ramirez’s favorite holiday: Día de los Muertos. This ofrenda recreates one Ramirez made in 2004 and will remain on view for the duration of the exhibition.

Constructed around a vintage stove acquired second-hand by the museum as a dedication to Ramirez’s grandmother, the in-gallery ofrenda serves as a space for reflection and community engagement. Museum visitors have the opportunity to create a paper marigold in remembrance of a loved one and add their flower to the ofrenda.