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Essential West Magazine
Exploring Art, Literature, History, Museums, Lifestyle, and Cultures of the West
It amazes me that four letters - W-E-S-T - have the ability to evoke an instantaneous emotional image. Simply the act of reading these four letters has caused you to form a narrative of your west.
Can the West be distilled to its essence - a simple direction or region? I believe not; it is a deeper dive of consciousness. How America sees itself and the world defines us. Diverse cultures, strong individualism, open spaces, and raw natural beauty marinated in a roughshod history have formed this region’s unique milieu.
Our online magazine’s primary focus is to feature relevant topics in art, literature, history, museums, lifestyle, and culture; lofty goals for any publication. No single magazine can be the beckon of all things western; it is a diverse, evolving paradigm that cannot be pigeonholed. As the publisher, I hope to be the buffalo that grazes the wide expanse of western sensibility and relay to you a glimpse of how I perceive our Essential West.
- Mark Sublette
Featured Article
Dorothea Lange's 'Death of a Valley' photographs on view at Booth Western Art Museum
Agriculture is a $50-plus billion business in California, greater than any other state, nearly double that of its nearest competitor, Iowa. Grapes, milk, cattle, almonds, oranges, pistachios, tomatoes. More than 24,000,000 acres of the Golden State are covered by almost 70,000 farms, nearly a quarter of its landmass. California creates almost 13% of all agricultural production in the...
James Prosek and the Texas Prairie at Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Trespassers: James Prosek and the Texas Prairie" installation view at Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Credit: Amon Carter Museum of American Art Grasslands and prairies don’t get the love of mountains or waterfalls or beaches. There’s no national park preserving a great native grass prairie drawing millions of tourists a year. No souvenir shops selling “the grasslands are calling, and I must go” doormats. No #prairielife hashtag racking up shares on social media. Maybe that’s because most people have never seen one. For the lucky few who have, they’ll tell you the waist-high grasses, the blooms, the innumerable...
Tony Abeyta honored as first Native American to receive U.S. Medal of Arts award
Tony Abeyta, 2021 (cropped)| Photo by Larry Price On September 13, 2023, in a ceremony presided over by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden at the White House, Tony Abeyta (b. 1965, Gallup, New Mexico; Diné (Navajo)) became the first Native American honored as a U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts recipient. The Medal of Arts award was created by Art in Embassies, in partnership with the Secretary of State, in 2012 to formally acknowledge artists who have played an exemplary role in advancing the Department of State’s mission to promote cultural diplomacy. What has become the Art in...
Highlights of the Eiteljorg Museum's Western Art galleries
Thomas Hart Benton, Lewis and Clark at Eagle Creek, 1967. Collection of the Eiteljorg Museum | Photo by Chadd Scott The first friendly face I see upon entering the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis is Bill Pickett’s. Bernard Williams’ Black Cowboy – Bill Pickett painting to be more precise. The five-foot portrait of a smiling Pickett placed just inside the entrance to the Eiteljorg’s Art of the American West ground floor permanent collection gallery greets all visitors. I made my third trip to the Eiteljorg in September of 2023 and Pickett draws me in every time. In the...
New book shares insider access to private art collections across the U.S.
Linda Fischbach's 'Extraordinary Art Experiences in America An Insider’s Guide' book cover Art and travel are my two favorite things. And pizza. I’ve been covering the intersection of art and travel at Forbes.com since 2018, highlighting what I think are the top public art experiences around America in over 300 stories and counting. Museum exhibitions, gallery openings, fairs, festivals, public art. That position led me to this one with “Essential West” where I place my focus on the western United States. A new book from Linda Fischbach published in August of 2023, "Extraordinary Art Experiences in America: An...
The best museums for Western art East of the Mississippi River
Where is the best place to find Western art east of the Mississippi River? I’m glad you asked. I love all kinds of art from the Northern Renaissance to graffiti, but it is Western art that first hooked me. The romance of the West. The landscapes. The wildlife. I remain a devote today, but scratching my itch for Western art proves difficult when living in Florida as I do. If you are similarly enamored with Western art while living “back East,” here are my recommendations for the best places to find it. Installation view of Maynard Dixon...
Laguna Art Museum presents 'Self Help Graphics & Art at 50'
Glenna Avila, Untitled, 1986, silkscreen on paper, 25 x 38 14 inches. Laguna Art Museum. Gift of Rene and Norma Molina and Museum Purchase with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency The Laguna Art Museum explores a fascinating slice of Southern California’s arts scene during “Marking an Era: Celebrating Self Help Graphics & Art at 50” on view through January 15, 2024. Over the past 50 years, Self Help Graphics & Art has grown to become one of the leading initiators in the creation of Chicana/o/x and Latinx art in the world. “Chicana/o/x”...
SITE SANTA FE receives prestigious grant for Dakota Mace exhibition
Dakota Mace, Tséyi (Among the Canyons). Archival Giclée Print, Glass Beadwork 30” x 42” (Framed) 2023 | Photo courtesy of the artist SITE SANTA FE has received one of the most prestigious grants awarded annually to an American museum in support of contemporary art and will use the money to present an exhibition for Diné artist Dakota Mace in 2025. The Ellsworth Kelly Award, administered by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, is a $45,000 invitation-only grant to support a solo exhibition of a contemporary visual artist at a U.S. art museum, university, or college art gallery. Although...
Latest characters in Virgil Ortiz' 'Revolt' series unveiled at History Colorado Center
Indigenous futurism in the artwork of Virgil Ortiz | Photo courtesy Virgil Ortiz Indigenous Futurism. Within the Native American art world, Virgil Ortiz (b. 1969; Cochiti Pueblo) virtually invented the genre. Around the year 2000, Ortiz began merging stories of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt heard since childhood with the science fiction imagery that has fascinated him since the release of “Star Wars,” another story of rebellion, in 1977. The latest and most dramatic expression of the artist’s vision of Indigenous futurism can be seen now through May of 2024 at History Colorado Center in Denver. “Virgil Ortiz...
Medicine Man Gallery to sponsor SWAIA Indian Market Best of Show award
Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) Best of Category photograph from SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market 2022 awards ceremony | Photo by Chadd Scott The next 100 years of SWAIA Indian Market begin with Medicine Man Gallery sponsoring the event’s Best of Show Award. Celebrating it’s 101st edition August 18-20, 2023, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Indian Market in Santa Fe brings together over 1,000 Native American artists from 200-plus sovereign nations and upwards of 100,000 attendees making it the largest Indigenous arts show in the world. Medicine Man Gallery founder and owner Mark Sublette attended his first...
11 Must-see paintings at Booth Western Art Museum
Installation view of Maynard Dixon 'Red Butte with Mountain Men' flanked by Jim Vogel paintings at Booth Western Art Museum | Photo by Chadd Scott With the largest exhibition space in the world for Western art, the Booth Western Art Museum 40 miles north of Atlanta in Cartersville, GA has hundreds of artworks on view at any one time. Most of the genre’s legendary figures are represented: Bierstadt, Moran, Remington, Russell, Dixon. The Booth’s permanent collection, however, primarily focuses on contemporary Western Art, post-1965, following the formation of the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa...