This ninth volume of Western Passages explores western American art within the context of the first four decades of the twentieth century. Decades divides the period from 1900 to 1940 into ten-year increments to investigate major artistic movements and important figures in western American art across mediums, styles, and subjects. In four wide-ranging essays, art historians examine western American art alongside concurrent events in American art and history. These essays reveal intriguing—and often surprising—intersections among American history, western American art, and the larger canon of American art. By investigating vertically within single decades it is possible to compare what multiple artists were producing at a given time. This approach reveals, for example, the interesting fact that Thomas Moran and Charles M. Russell both died in 1926. Though active at the same time, Moran and Russell created very different bodies of work. Decades illuminates these and other diverse artistic reactions to the seismic changes in American life and culture following the turn of the twentieth century. Widely accepted at the time was the idea that the western frontier had closed. The notion that the West “as it was” had passed into history had a profound effect on artists. So too did large-scale industrialization, the rise of automobile tourism, economic depression, and international conflict. No longer was art of the American West centered on exploration or ethnology; rather, artists of the new century shifted their focus toward art movements, aesthetics, and art for art’s sake. Later, when the nation—and particularly the West—faced major financial and environmental distress, western American art again reflected the concerns of the region. Read Less