Open Sesame!

Lure of the West: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum opens today in San Marino, California.

Lure of the West features paintings and sculptures from the 1820s through the 1940s by American artists fascinated with Indian and Hispanic cultures and the majestic landscapes of the western territories. The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens hosts this traveling exhibition through December 16, 2001.

Indian Women Making Pottery by Catherine Critcher is one of more than sixty artworks on view. Portrait-painter Catherine Critcher traveled from her home in Washington, D.C., to the Southwest year after year, intrigued by the region and its Native American and Hispanic peoples: "Taos is unlike any place God ever made … no place could be more conducive to work. There are models galore and no phones."

The only female member of the Taos Society of Artists, Critcher approached each subject with sensitivity and an astute eye for color and form. Although she depicted scenes of everyday life, such as this group of Pueblo Indians grinding clay and painting pottery, she was most interested in depicting the intense, expressive features of the indigenous tribes.

Source: Merry Foresta. Lure of the West: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: Catherine C. Critcher, 1868–1964, Indian Women Making Pottery, about 1924, oil, 40 1/8 x 37 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Arvin Gottlieb.