GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Regionalist painter William Lester developed an iconography of the Southwest that reached far beyond simple observation of nature. Rejecting impressionistic interpretations of Texas’ landscape, filled with rolling hills of bluebonnets and restrained to a pastel palette, Lester’s landscapes are instead at the stylistic crossroads of surrealism, expressionism, abstraction and regionalism.
In this less idyllic rendering of the Panhandle Canyonlands, Lester paints a small watering hole nestled within a clearing of eroded land. The viewer witnesses the eerie scene, filled with a haunting sense of emptiness, echoed in the hollowed tree and eroded soil. In the sky, a looming cloud floats above. Its size and shape are mirrored in the rippled pool below, while the glossy sheen of the water juxtaposes the flat, surreal clouds. Cypress Fen captures a critical moment in Lester’s career, on the brink of wholly non-objective, abstract painting, which would characterize the artist’s work for the remainder of his career.
Excerpt from
Erin Pinon, Early Texas Art Research Associate, DMA label copy (1940.17), June 2016.
NOTES
EAS- compare this content to my note 1937.24 Lester, Three Crosses--DONE JLFR
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)
Exhibition: Lone Star Regionalism :The Dallas Nine and their Circle 1928-1945, February 3, 1985-July 10, 1988
1940.17- drafted by Erin Pinon
CYPRESS FEN, c. 1940
Lester exhibited with the Lone Star Printmakers group, at the Texas centennial, and at the New York World's Fair of 1939. In the 1940s, he joined the art faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for the remainder of his career. During the Great Depression, Lester worked for the staff artist for the civilian conservation corps, traveling and sketching in the Palo Duro country. In its harsh color and barren forms, Cypress Fern conveys the haunting emptiness of the Panhandle canyon lands.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location and place of origin: Texas (state/United States): TGN: 7007826
Process/materials
Oil on Masonite
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
Before 1940: William Lester [1]
From 1940: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Kiest Memorial Purchase Prize, Eleventh Annual Dallas Allied Arts Exhibition, purchased from the artist. [2]
[1] The main source for this provenance was existing information in TMS (in Dallas Museum of Art Digital Collections Records Object Files). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[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
- Dallas Museum of Art, Uncrated~Learn more about the Kiest Memorial Prize on the DMA's Uncrated blog.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1940.17
Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 786
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General Description
Regionalist painter William Lester developed an iconography of the Southwest that reached far beyond simple observation of nature. Rejecting impressionistic interpretations of Texas’ landscape, filled with rolling hills of bluebonnets and restrained to a pastel palette, Lester’s landscapes are instead at the stylistic crossroads of surrealism, expressionism, abstraction and regionalism.
In this less idyllic rendering of the Panhandle Canyonlands, Lester paints a small watering hole nestled within a clearing of eroded land. The viewer witnesses the eerie scene, filled with a haunting sense of emptiness, echoed in the hollowed tree and eroded soil. In the sky, a looming cloud floats above. Its size and shape are mirrored in the rippled pool below, while the glossy sheen of the water juxtaposes the flat, surreal clouds. Cypress Fen captures a critical moment in Lester’s career, on the brink of wholly non-objective, abstract painting, which would characterize the artist’s work for the remainder of his career.
Excerpt from
Erin Pinon, Early Texas Art Research Associate, DMA label copy (1940.17), June 2016.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Dallas Museum of Art, Uncrated~Learn more about the Kiest Memorial Prize on the DMA's Uncrated blog.
Notes
EAS- compare this content to my note 1937.24 Lester, Three Crosses--DONE JLFR
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)
Exhibition: Lone Star Regionalism :The Dallas Nine and their Circle 1928-1945, February 3, 1985-July 10, 1988
1940.17- drafted by Erin Pinon
CYPRESS FEN, c. 1940
Lester exhibited with the Lone Star Printmakers group, at the Texas centennial, and at the New York World's Fair of 1939. In the 1940s, he joined the art faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for the remainder of his career. During the Great Depression, Lester worked for the staff artist for the civilian conservation corps, traveling and sketching in the Palo Duro country. In its harsh color and barren forms, Cypress Fern conveys the haunting emptiness of the Panhandle canyon lands.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location and place of origin: Texas (state/United States): TGN: 7007826
Process/materials
Oil on Masonite
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
Before 1940: William Lester [1]
From 1940: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Kiest Memorial Purchase Prize, Eleventh Annual Dallas Allied Arts Exhibition, purchased from the artist. [2]
[1] The main source for this provenance was existing information in TMS (in Dallas Museum of Art Digital Collections Records Object Files). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[2] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
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VIDEO ASSETS
rules
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Objects
number
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1940.17
source file
object_notes_3_c-0036.xml.nores