Navigating the West
Subtitle: George Caleb Bingham & the river
By: Nenette Luarca-Shoaf, Claire Barry, Nancy Heugh, Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Dorothy Mahon, Andrew J. Walker, and Janeen Turk ; with contributions by Margaret C. Conrads, Brent R. Benjamin, and Andrew J. Walker
Contributors: Barry, Claire M., author; Heugh, Nancy, author; Kornhauser, Elizabeth Mankin, 1950- author; Mahon, Dorothy, author; Luarca-Shoaf, Nenette; Bingham, George Caleb, 1811-1879; Amon Carter Museum of American Art; St. Louis Art Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
Publisher: Amon Carter Museum of American Art; Saint Louis Art Museum
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 199
ISBN-13: 9780300206708
Subjects: In art; Rivers in art; Exhibitions
Description: George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879) moved to Missouri as a child and began painting the scenes of Missouri life, for which he is now famous, in the 1840s. This book explores how Bingham's iconic river paintings reveal the cultural and economic significance of the massive Mississippi and Missouri waterways to mid-19th-century society. Focusing on the artist's working methods and preparatory drawings, the book also explores Bingham's representations of people and places and situates these images in a dialogue with other contemporary depictions of the region. Of particular note are two landmark essays investigating Bingham's creative process through comparisons of infrared images of 17 of his paintings with both his preparatory drawings and the completed works, casting new light on his previously understudied process. Technical analysis of the artist's lauded masterpiece, Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, reveals Bingham's considerable revisions to the painting. In the concluding essay, the 20th-century revival of the artist's work is discussed within the context of American Regionalism and in light of a shifting sequence of narratives about the nation's past and future. Exhibition: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, USA (4.10.-4.1.2015) / Saint Louis Art Museum, USA (22.2.-17.5.2015) / The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, USA (22.6.-20.9.2015).
Notes: Issued in connection with an exhibition held at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, October 2, 2014 through January 18, 2015, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri, February 22 through May 17, 2015, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, June 16 through September 20, 2015.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Fluid Presence : George Caleb Bingham and the River / Nenette Luarca-Shoaf; title: Navigating the Path of the Brush; title: Creation of the Riverboat Paintings / Claire Barry with Nancy Heugh; title: Fur Traders Descending the Missouri : Revisited / Elizabeth Kornhauser with Dorothy Mahon; title: Riparian Revival : Bingham in the Twentieth Century / Andrew J. Walker and Janeen Turk.