This page has moved: Click here if you are not redirected automatically.
|
“Draw, draw, draw,” these were the words Fredric Remington wrote to Maynard Dixon when Dixon was just 16 years old. Maynard took them to heart and spent a lifetime drawing. His pencil became his camera, recording every person, place, and thing for the next half century. In pen, ink, and conte crayon, Dixon created his, “Shades of Gray.” Dixon meticulously documented the West and its people. No detail was too small: boots, hats, the rear end of a horse, all were examined and drawn. The painter in Dixon realized the small details he drew were important to the finished work. Many of his greatest paintings began as 3 by 4 inch drawings on trading post stationary. Dixon’s life, like a book, can be followed in his drawings. Every sketch documents a chapter in his journey through the West. One needs only a date in time to know what Dixon was doing: Late 1890’s: Early works were often signed L. Maynard Dixon. This was a time of self-understanding and observation. 1900: Maynard took his first western trip and became hooked on the West and it’s indigenous people. Trips through the West followed for the rest of his life. 1909 and 1917: Dixon traveled by horse to Idaho and Montana. These summer trips influenced his work for years to come. He often retraced these memories through drawings decades later. 1914 - 1915: Long journeys through the Navajo Nation of Arizona reinforced the early imagery of his 1900 and 1902 trips. Like Edward Curtis, Dixon captured on paper the Navajo people and their interaction with the environment. 1921: Maynard resided at Sandhill Camp, his boyhood home, and rendered a large number of pencil sketches depicting cows, horses, and landscapes. The nineteen twenties marked a style change in Dixon’s work. The cubist influence seeped into his landscapes and clouds. This influence would pervade his art during the remainder of his life. 1922 - 1923: Dixon created compelling images of Native Americans, especially Hopi Indians. 1931: Maynard’s only extended stay in New Mexico. His family trip to Taos led to some of Dixon’s most memorable works: Earth Knower and Men of Red Earth. Dixon’s New Mexico cloud studies are a refinement of his fascination with the sky and its ever-changing colors. 1933: Dixon visited Utah, which became, in later years, his summer home. 1934 - 1935: The majority of Dixon’s depression era paintings are completed. These remarkable images are a departure from his landscapes and drawings of indigenous people. The power of his imagery during this time is often considered his best. Dixon’s marriage to Dorthea Lange, who undoubtedly influenced him in the creation of these images, came to an end. 1937: Dixon was rejuvenated by his marriage to Edith Hamlin, which took place under a cottonwood tree, long an icon of Dixon’s work. 1940 - 1946: Dixon settled in Tucson, Arizona for the last six years of his life, drawing and painting the desert he loved. Many of his final images were of his own backyard: cactus, adobe homes, the Catalina Mountains and, of course, simple images of clouds passing overhead. His lung disease, now too severe to allow extended travel into the desert on painting trips, did not deter Dixon’s passion to “draw, draw, draw” in his many, “Shades of Gray.” ° Maynard Dixon’s drawings number in the thousands, yet surprisingly these chronicles of western life are relatively hard to come by. Undoubtedly, large numbers of these “snapshots” of the American West simply ended up tossed out over time along with the old mission furniture on which they were created. Many Dixon drawings exist today because Edith Hamlin, Maynard’s last wife, saved and cherished these great works. When Dixon died in 1946, he left hundreds of drawings. Edith, in her later years, gave many of these to Maynard’s children and grandchildren. The bulk of the drawings for this show come from these rare and important gifts. Most are on exhibit and sale for the first time since Dixon’s death. ° Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, Arizona, has dedicated one wing to the works of Maynard Dixon. The Dixon wing is a permanent exhibit of the literature, photographs, poetry, drawings, and paintings of Maynard Dixon. “Shades of Gray” will be on display March 9 through May 15 in Tucson, Arizona, then moves to Medicine Man Gallery of Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 25 through Sept 15, 2001. The gallery catalog was placed online so a worldwide audience could have access to these important drawings. The works are organized into categories, which affords comparison of similar subjects drawn during different periods of Dixon’s life. We hope you enjoy this most important show. Dr.
J. Mark Sublette
|
||||
