GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Arguably Harry Carnohan’s most celebrated work, West Texas Landscape depicts an isolated, barren wasteland. While seemingly uninhabited, the scene’s elements of desertion and emptiness do hint at a once lively human presence. Discarded objects flank a pair of tire tracks leading to a fence whose wire railing has uncoiled from its posts. Small sprouts, carefully lined up, cast prominent shadows on the dry, clay soil—hopeful indications of growth and rebirth amid the arid landscape, or dismal symbols of Depression-era realism.
Carnohan favored modern styles and trends more than his Dallas Nine contemporaries and remained an active art critic, theorizing and discussing the influence of modernism on regional painting as a featured contributor to the Dallas Journal. The source for his surrealist preference is unquestioned. The artist lived and worked in Paris during the second half of the 1920s, where he was undoubtedly influenced by all facets of European modernism. Painted upon his return to Dallas, this desolate, eerie scene is the culmination of lessons abroad, vistas from home, and the realist style he perfected. On this painting Jerry Bywaters commented: “We find he has actually achieved West Texas in an art form while most other painters seem to be bringing us only the incidental complexion of a landscape.”
Adapted from
Erin Pinon, Early Texas Art Research Associate, DMA label copy (1935.2), June 2016
NOTES
This note was originally created and submitted by Erin Pinon, summer 2016. I am removing the #draft tag and requesting that the content be pulled from Brain and the Google Docs routing process so that I can review formatting, tagging, and text. After review, the note will be retagged with #draft and proceed to be harvested, routed, and revised as usual. (EAS, 8/26/2016)
Object file reviewed.
TMS record reviewed.
Reviewed verso photography- all labels indicated by exhibition history.
Added Exhibition- Golden gate International Exposition, San Fran 1940 (cat published 1939)
Added former title- Texas Landscape- used on DMFA documentation in the object file.
Exhibition: Lone Star Regionalism: The Dallas Nine and their Circle 1928-1945, February 3, 1985-July 10, 1988
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location- Texas
Place of origin- Dallas
Process/materials
oil paint
masonite
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
desert
landscape
shed
posts
Fence
Plants
Sky
Horizon line
Climate
Seasons
Bywaters, Jerry
Rural area
bucket
hose
pebbles
Surrealism
realism
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
From 1935: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, purchased from the artist [1], [2]
[1] Neiman-Marcus Company Purchase Prize, Seventh Annual Dallas Allied Arts Exhibition, 1935
[2] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
- West Texas Landscape was well received by critics and patrons alike, winning a Purchase Prize at the Seventh Annual Allied Arts Exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art (then known as the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts) in 1935, and praised a year later at its inclusion in the Texas Centennial Exposition and Art Exhibition (1936).
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1935.2
Category
rules_operator
AND
General Description
Arguably Harry Carnohan’s most celebrated work, West Texas Landscape depicts an isolated, barren wasteland. While seemingly uninhabited, the scene’s elements of desertion and emptiness do hint at a once lively human presence. Discarded objects flank a pair of tire tracks leading to a fence whose wire railing has uncoiled from its posts. Small sprouts, carefully lined up, cast prominent shadows on the dry, clay soil—hopeful indications of growth and rebirth amid the arid landscape, or dismal symbols of Depression-era realism.
Carnohan favored modern styles and trends more than his Dallas Nine contemporaries and remained an active art critic, theorizing and discussing the influence of modernism on regional painting as a featured contributor to the Dallas Journal. The source for his surrealist preference is unquestioned. The artist lived and worked in Paris during the second half of the 1920s, where he was undoubtedly influenced by all facets of European modernism. Painted upon his return to Dallas, this desolate, eerie scene is the culmination of lessons abroad, vistas from home, and the realist style he perfected. On this painting Jerry Bywaters commented: “We find he has actually achieved West Texas in an art form while most other painters seem to be bringing us only the incidental complexion of a landscape.”
Adapted from
Erin Pinon, Early Texas Art Research Associate, DMA label copy (1935.2), June 2016
Fun Facts
- West Texas Landscape was well received by critics and patrons alike, winning a Purchase Prize at the Seventh Annual Allied Arts Exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art (then known as the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts) in 1935, and praised a year later at its inclusion in the Texas Centennial Exposition and Art Exhibition (1936).
Archival Resources
Web Resources
Notes
This note was originally created and submitted by Erin Pinon, summer 2016. I am removing the #draft tag and requesting that the content be pulled from Brain and the Google Docs routing process so that I can review formatting, tagging, and text. After review, the note will be retagged with #draft and proceed to be harvested, routed, and revised as usual. (EAS, 8/26/2016)
Object file reviewed.
TMS record reviewed.
Reviewed verso photography- all labels indicated by exhibition history.
Added Exhibition- Golden gate International Exposition, San Fran 1940 (cat published 1939)
Added former title- Texas Landscape- used on DMFA documentation in the object file.
Exhibition: Lone Star Regionalism: The Dallas Nine and their Circle 1928-1945, February 3, 1985-July 10, 1988
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location- Texas
Place of origin- Dallas
Process/materials
oil paint
masonite
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
desert
landscape
shed
posts
Fence
Plants
Sky
Horizon line
Climate
Seasons
Bywaters, Jerry
Rural area
bucket
hose
pebbles
Surrealism
realism
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
From 1935: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, purchased from the artist [1], [2]
[1] Neiman-Marcus Company Purchase Prize, Seventh Annual Dallas Allied Arts Exhibition, 1935
[2] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
1935.2
source file
object_notes_2_d-0066.xml.nores