Downtown Tucsonan - January 2009 - (Page 17) Arts h o m e o f t u c s o n , 1 94 5 , o i l o n c a n va s b o a r d , 1 6 x 2 0, d o n a t e d t o t m a b y d r s . m a r k a n d kathleen sublette. c u t b a n k , t u c s o n , 1 94 2 , o i l o n b o a r d , 2 0 x 1 6 , collection of ray and kay harvey aynard dixon’s biography reads almost as fiction, or as one biographer put it, a work of art itself. the young man, precocious, gifted artistically and born into an educated and literate family, was welcomed early on into the artistic society of california and became wildly successful as a magazine illustrator (in what has been called the Golden age of Illustration). an iconoclast and self-created original, he ultimately rejected the romantic interpretations of a nostalgic, phony west he was being paid to create in favor of what he termed “honest art of the west,” expressions of the glorious landscapes he traversed on foot, horseback, wagon and automobile. Beginning early in the 1900s, he traveled extensively through arizona (as well as other western states), painting and sketching obsessively. He also affected a cowboy persona, complete with hand-tooled boots and stetsons — a seemingly exotic aspect to accompany his obsession with all things western. this exhibit is a sumptuous output that aptly demonstrates the steadfast and creative capacity of this diligent artist. over time, dixon’s work increased in the excellence of its execution. of course, he created hundreds of other works not represented here (due to the specialized focus of this particular show) but still exist in his last home of tucson (at Medicine Man Gallery in the Foothills). dixon wrote poetry copiously, exploring not only the themes of his love for the land and his adventures roaming it, but also profoundly introspective and philosophical musings. He beautifully illustrated his poems, which were free-form and sometimes deliberately comical (he was known amongst his friends for his sense of humor). that dixon married three times is suggestive of his restless nature. His second wife, the famed photographer dorothea Lange, influenced his style, and in a way, propelled him into modernity, with simplification of design and an amalgam of realism and impressionism that he called “space division.” several canvasses depicting Great depression themes similar Maynard dixon ranks among arizona’s most loved painters, and this winter (through February 15), more than 135 of his pieces will be on display at the tucson Museum of art. although dixon was far more prolific than even this impressive array of works suggests, the exhibit is important and substantial. the collection, painstakingly gathered from myriad sources, suffuses the gallery walls with the tangible delineations of arizona that he created from the early 1900s until his death in tucson in 1946. these splendid examples of the grandeur of the southwestern terrain and vistas—thoughtful renderings of both the expansive natural settings and their human inhabitants—are bound to mesmerize the discerning viewer. whether delicate drawings that suggest with a few perfect strokes the massive buttes and mesas of Hopi or impressionistic renderings in oil of iconic sky– and cloudscapes (that almost suggest he was practicing cloud study or nephology!) juxtaposed with the sandstone synclines, anticlines, cliffs, bajadas, deserts, forests and arroyos, canyons and mountains with which we are so familiar, whether the stoic faces of the Pima or Mohave or navajo or Hopi maidens and elders, children and craftsmen, cowboys and friends (including one particularly striking pencil portrait of charles Lummis); whether architecture, livestock, intimate scenes of domestic native life straight out of anthropology 101, his touch was sublime, his use of color innovative and bold, his interpretations of his beloved west were masterful. to what Lange was photographing at the time are a stark departure, in both theme and palette, from the brightly colored exuberance of the landscapes. dixon’s third wife, muralist Edith Hamlin, shared his love of the canyon country of southern utah—especially Zion, where they spent the summer of 1933—with side trips to the small village of Mt. carmel. In 1939, they built a house there. until dixon’s death in 1946, winter months were spent in tucson in their home and studio on Prince Road (at that time the outskirts of town). He continued to paint until almost the end, and his late works reflect a further distillation of composition, where non-essential elements were eliminated, until what was left were strong, simple expressions of his vision, his comfort among the big skies and dramatic vistas of his beloved country. It is all but impossible not to be struck by how dixon contrasted the luminous cerulean blue of the sky with the earth tones of the desert sands and vegetation. the layout of the exhibition at the tucson Museum of art provides an easily assimilated chronology of dixon’s artistic development and evolution, leading up to the last tucsonbased works, dynamic in their clarity and strength of purpose. this was an artist who truly exuded creativity until he had nothing left to give, born to do one thing and to do it extraordinarily well, with love and joy and focus. our world of arizona and the southwest appears different to us, because Maynard dixon showed us how to go beyond merely looking at it; he taught us how to actually see it. january.09. downtown tucsonan 17
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