Contested terrain
Subtitle: myth and meanings in Southwest art
By: Sharyn R. Udall.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Albuquerque
Language: eng
Number of pages: 180
Subjects: Art, American -- Southwest, New -- 20th century -- Themes, motives
Description: The Southwest has long beckoned the artist. But too often, art made by Euro-Americans drawn to this region has either "basked in the sunny celebration of the picturesque, the exotic, and the sentimental" or appropriated the myths and art of Native Americans. In this collection of essays, Sharyn R. Udall explores the work of some of the painters who have found stimulus in the ideas, people, and myths of the Southwest, among them Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Page Allen, and Woody Gwyn.

They saw the Southwest in new ways, drawing inspiration from the very light and topography of the region. Udall's goal is to open and enlarge the discussion by rejecting the "neat, circumscribed way of seeing" common to traditional art history. Thus, she declares, one is able to encourage a fresh look at these painters and their work, and at the larger relationships of nature and culture in the Southwest.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-171 ) and index.
Table of contents: title: Spiritual icons in Southwest art: the sacred mountain, pueblo cosmogony, and Euro-American landscape painting; title: Into the neon sunset: a look at the sources and significance of contemporary cowboy imagery; title: The irresistible other: Hopi ritual drama and Euro-American audiences; title: Southwest Phoenix: Marsden Hartley's search for self in New Mexico; title: Beholding the epiphanies: mysticism and the art of Georgia O'keeffe; title: Models of consciousness: myth and memory in the work of Georgia O'keeffe, Eliot Porter, and Todd Webb; title: Page Allen and the mythic landscape; title: Woody Gwyn: landscape painting and the social meaning of the earth.