The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986 Page: 227
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Southwestern Historical Quarterly and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Texas State Historical Association.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Book Reviews
E. Irving Couse. He also catalogued much wildlife and had a powerful
sense of the mystical as well as actual power of nature.
Dunton loved color and produced richly textured canvases, often
dramatically lighted as if the subjects were on stage. He was essentially
an academician, depicting character and recognizable form, but mod-
ernism did influence his later works. He steadily eliminated detail in
favor of simplified but richly painted forms such as clouds, mountains,
close-ups of vegetation and flowers, and human and animal figures. He
also used a curious brushstroke that rounded the edges of many forms
and gave them a downward thrust. His watercolors have a kind of stud-
ied spontaneity that depicts motion, but in figures that are mysterious
for being sketched only in broad strokes and dramatic colors. He also
often painted views looking downward from great height, or looking
upward with a sense of infinity. He is a good example of the accom-
modation of traditional and modern ideas and techniques in realistic
subject matter that had mythical qualities.
This book contains as much biographical information on Dunton as
has survived. The discussion of his changes of style and subject is very
good. The volume includes an exhibition record and catalogue rais-
onn6 of his works. This is an interesting and useful addition to the
growing literature on western art.
University of Oklahoma H. WAYNE MORGAN
Nature's Forms/Nature's Forces: The Art of Alexandre Hogue. By Lea Rosson
DeLong. (Tulsa and Norman: Philbrook Art Center and University
of Oklahoma Press, 1984. Pp. x+ 21 1. Foreword, acknowledgments,
introduction, color plates, bibliography, index. $19.95, paper.)
Nineteen eighty-five has been an excellent year for dispelling the no-
tion that Alexandre Hogue attributed to his Texas audience in a 926
letter to the Southwest Review. "If [the artist] is a home-grown product
interested in home subjects," Hogue wrote, "he simply can't be very
good" (p. 16). Thanks in part to a growing scholarly interest in region-
alism, as well as to the efforts of major art institutions to contribute to
the Texas Sesquicentennial, a number of exhibitions, including the
Dallas Museum of Fine Art's Dallas Nine show and the Houston Mu-
seum of Fine Art's Fresh Paint exhibit, have attested to the quality and
vitality of Texas artists and Texas subjects. Lea Rosson DeLong's cata-
logue of Hogue's work, as well as the exhibit that it accompanies, are
further important contributions to the growing recognition that Texas
art deserves serious study.227
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986, periodical, 1985/1986; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117151/m1/265/?rotate=0: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.