Westward Ho!

Lure of the West: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum opens today at the Akron Art Museum in Ohio, and runs through November 26, 2000.

This exhibition encompasses more than a century of art, moving from the excitement of exploration to the establishment of a national mythology about the West.

Lure of the West includes this showstopper by Thomas Moran. The majestic array of cliffs that lines the banks of the Green River in southwestern Wyoming ranked high among the artist's favorite Western subjects. He returned there time and again, sketching it from different angles and under changing skies.

Though small in size, this painting gives a sensation of expansiveness, as a small group of Indians rides toward a distant encampment below soaring cliffs. Moran's opalescent colors and flowing brushwork evoke an untouched wilderness, although the area was settled by the 1880s.

Source: Amy Pastan. The Lure of the West: Treasures of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000).

Pictured: Thomas Moran, 1837 England–1926 USA, Cliffs of the Upper Colorado River, Wyoming Territory, 1882, oil, 16 x 24 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design.