" 4 t ,/ .4_64 ( 7'
Above: Alexandre Hogue, Hooking On At Central Power, 1940. Lithograph. Judy and Stephen Alton Collection. Opposite, top: Olin Travis, The Old
Sheepherder, circa 1940. Lithograph. Judy and Stephen Alton Collection. Bottom: Blanche McVeigh, Site of First Trading Post, Fort Worth, 1934.
Etching. Private collection.
Id Texas paintings reveal some amazing things
O about the Lone Star State. Some show the
first apocalyptic views of the Alamo in ruins.
Surviving artworks by Julius Stockfleth still
project a vibrant yet tranquil Galveston Island
prior to the island's near-total destruction in the Hurricane
of 1900 (see image on page 44). Olin Travis' Mayor of Hoover
City (Texas), painted soon after the stock market crash of
1929, pointedly incorporates a modern skyline as the back-
drop for Travis' visualization of the human cost of wide-
spread economic collapse (see image on page 45). Hardships
offered up by life in rural west Texas melt away in Alice
Reynolds' Buffalo Gals (see top image on page 40), where
cowboys perpetually twirl their partners in a dusty, but
lively Saturday night street dance. Welcome to a slice of
American art history broadly and popularly known as
"early Texas art."
Interest in early Texas art has soared since 1985 when the
Dallas Museum of Art debuted Lone Star Regionalism: The
Dallas Nine and Their Circle (1928-1945) in support of the
Texas Sesquicentennial. This exhibition and similar sesqui-
centennial efforts by art museums across the state served as
catalysts for re-examining a subject that was largely hidden
from public view despite some scholarly attention in the
1960s and 1970s. Today, interest in the Texas art tradition is
at an all-time high, spurred along by enthusiastic collectors,
knowledgeable dealers, museum shows, and an explosion of
information.
Who were the early artists of Texas, and what were they
inspired to draw and paint? Some of the answers come
from places like the Witte Museum in San Antonio, where
more than 3,600 early Texas paintings and drawings are
housed. The Witte's focus on art produced in San An-
tonio and central Texas was set in motion in 1927 when
42 TEXASHERITAGE I Volume 1 2011
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