Crossing the Mountains

Our traveling show Lure of the West: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum will soon cross mountains, as it ends its exhibition in San Marino, California, today and packs up to go to Utah!

Hurry to see the Lure of the West today before it leaves the The Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens in San Marino. Its next stop is the Brigham Young University Museum of Art in Provo, Utah, starting in January.

Lure of the West combines dozens of artworks that celebrate Indian and Hispanic cultures and the majestic landscapes of the western territories—including Victor Higgins's Mountain Forms #2.

Nature's elemental grandeur dwarfs the figures as they wind their way through rugged terrain. Higgins tackled the landscape near Taos, New Mexico, with refreshing spontaneity, believing that “the object of painting is not to copy nature;… painting should begin with this morning—should reflect today's experiences.” He eliminated minute detail and simplified form to emphasize patterns of color and shape.

Source: Merry Foresta. Lure of the West: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: Victor Higgins, 1884–1949, Mountain Forms #2, about 1925–27, oil, 40 1/2 x 43 1/16 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Arvin Gottlieb.