The Contemporary American West

The realities of the modern West, the lives of both the urban and rural people, and the forms, colors, and the light of the natural world provide the catalysts for contemporary images that are created today. The modern western vision expresses the ambiguities, the harmonies and the dissonance, which characterize life in the twentieth century. Some of today’s western artists are illustrators whose subjects confirm universal cultural myths. Others strive to express in their work the multidimensional world that is the West of today. While the earlier heroic paintings and sculptures nurture the spirit, the modern western vision has the power to stimulate the mind.