Art of the American West: Highlights of the Haub Family Collection from the Tacoma Art Museum

September 30, 2017 - January 7, 2018

Lightcatcher Building

Walter Ufer (German | American, 1876 – 1936); Evening Rays, circa 1923; Oil on canvas; 25 x 25 in. Courtesy of the Tacoma Art Museum, Haub Family Collection, Gift of Erivan and Helga Haub, 2014.6.132.

September 30, 2017 – January 7, 2018, Lightcatcher

This fall, the Whatcom Museum will feature a selection of artwork on loan from the Tacoma Art Museum, featuring works of Western American Art. The Haub Family Collection of Western American Art is unrivaled in its scope in the Pacific Northwest. The collection includes prominent nineteenth-century artists who influenced our views of Native Americans, mountain men, cowboys, and pristine American landscapes, including Henry Inman, Paul Kane, John Mix Stanley, and Charles M. Russell.

From the twentieth century, the exhibition includes artists who brought modern art movements west and who explored western history and American identity, such as E. Martin Hennings, Maynard Dixon, Robert Henri, and Georgia O’Keeffe. The collection also includes many artists who are active and working today. Contemporary Native American artists John Nieto and Kevin Red Star take a fresh approach and portray Native American culture in a modern light, and pop artist Bill Schenck uses humor and satire to challenge long-held assumptions about the American West.

The artworks in the exhibition examine ideas of American identity over time, delve into storytelling and myth-making, and explore the vast American landscape. Visitors will see how concepts of the West, both real and imagined, have continually changed and evolved, and still influence people today. Learn more about this collection from the Tacoma Art Museum.

Art of the American West: Highlights of the Haub Family Collection from the Tacoma Art Museum was organized by Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington. This exhibition is supported by Mary Summerfield & Mike O’Neal, Patti & Frank Imhof, Sue Lobland, the Whatcom Museum Advocates, the Whatcom Museum Foundation, and the City of Bellingham.