An American Collection: Works from the Amon Carter Museum

Amon G. Carter (1879-1955) is one of the legendary men of Texas history. Born in a log cabin, he was self-made, becoming Fort Worth's leading citizen and champion. He developed an interest in the art of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell through his friendship with Will Rogers. Carter's will provided for the establishment of a museum in Fort Worth devoted to the art of the American West. While the museum holds the most significant collection anywhere of works by Remington and Russell and is a pioneer in the field of western studies, it has evolved into one of the great museums of American art as a whole, focusing on artists working on successive frontiers, aesthetic as well as geographic. Its photography collection alone has grown to nearly one-quarter of a million objects.
The museum, designed by noted architect Philip Johnson, opened to the public in 1961. On the occasion of its fortieth anniversary, a substantially expanded building, also designed by Mr. Johnson, was inaugurated. This volume relates the museum's history and presents color and duotone illustrations of 125 of its masterworks dating from 1822 to 1998 (paintings, sculpture, prints, watercolors, pastels, drawings, and photographs), with an essay about each and a biography of each artist. It includes a number of landmark works recently added to the collection and unveiled here for the first time: paintings by John Singer Sargent, Stuart Davis, and Marsden Hartley; sculpture by Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson; a daguerreotype by Southworth and Hawes; and photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, David Smith, Robert Adams, and Linda Connor.