Western
10” x 10” and 2.375’ x 4.8’, 2023
A while back, I visited the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville and became totally obsessed with the over the top western wear popularized by stars like Porter Wagoner, designed primarily by the legendary Nudie Cohn and Manuel. The evolution of this clothing from something rugged and utilitarian intended for back-breaking work to being covered in sequins like a rhinestone cowboy seemed to speak to how American “tall tales” are invented. Last year I happened upon a cache of photos taken by the brilliant Toni Frissell on a Wyoming cattle ranch in the 50’s, many undeveloped until decades later, and was inspired to create a series of three pieces which contrast myth and reality, intended to be displayed as a triptych. I planned on using photos of both men and women in this series, but the women were absolutely magnetic so none of the men made the final cut!
The central panel contrasts the documentary photography of Toni Frissell with one of the most instrumental figures in the creation and proliferation of the myths of the Wild West, Buffalo Bill Cody. “Buffalo Bill” was entirely an invention of Cody, a colorful raconteur who used his charm and striking looks to propel himself from the hard life of a frontier “Indian fighter” and buffalo hunter to show business as the ringmaster of a series of highly successful Wild West tours of the U.S. and Europe. These tours allowed many to see with their own eyes for the first time the cowboys and indians they’d read about in newspapers and dime-store novels, helping cement the highly fictionalized image of the era that persists to this day. What is known of Cody’s real story is much more complicated and bloody, but historians have had trouble parsing the fact from fiction because of a lifetime of tall tales. On the far right is Tom Mix, who starred in over 100 cowboy movies from the early days of film. His life spanned an interesting transitional period for these myths – a few decades after the “Wild West” era but a few decades before newspapers held entertainers to journalistic standards. He appeared in Teddy Roosevelt’s inaugural parade with the Rough Riders and was friends with the real Wyatt Earp, facts that press agents conflated with reality, claiming that he was a participant in the exploits of both of those men (whose public legends are also tied up with a lot of exaggeration).
