Curating the West

Each Month We Ask Leading Museum Curators About What’s Going On In Their World.

The front entrance of the Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, New York.

Laura Desmond, Curator & Educator
Frederic Remington Art Museum
Ogdensburg, NY, (315) 393-2425
www.fredericremington.org

What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why?

I’ve spent much of the past year working on our gorgeous new permanent exhibit dedicated to American sculptor Sally James Farnham. I’m very much looking forward to the day when we can safely host a big public reception to properly celebrate the work of this fascinating and accomplished artist, giving her the spotlight she so richly deserves. Farnham and Remington were friends and colleagues; he offered encouragement and advice when she took up sculpting, and she oversaw production of his final two sculptures, the large-size Broncho Buster and The Stampede. Laura Desmond

What are you reading?

In conjunction with a visit to the Portland Museum of Art to see Mythmakers: The Art of Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington, I recently read the essays in the excellent accompanying catalog, Homer | Remington, which did much to enrich my experience of the exhibition’s comparative project. On my nightstand is C Pam Zhang’s How Much of These Hills is Gold. If the dominant mythos of the American West is grounded in Whiteness, masculinity, violence and gender-binaries, Zhang seems to be crafting an alternative mythos that is shaped by other cultural sensibilities; it’s just as violent, but also beautiful and haunting. And since I’ve only recently taken up the position of curator, I’m spending a lot of time skimming and reading old files!

Interesting exhibit, gallery opening or work of art you’ve seen recently.

Although the pandemic has kept me close to home, I was able to see Mythmakers: The Art of Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington (to which we are lenders) while it was at the Portland Museum of Art. The juxtaposition of these two artists, full of fascinating overlaps and contrasts, really helps to illuminate what is distinctive about each. For me, it was a rare opportunity to spend quality time in deep conversation with Remington works that normally live far away from Ogdensburg, New York.

What are you researching at the moment?

I’m currently researching the history of the land on which the Frederic Remington Art Museum is situated, here at the confluence of the Oswegatchie and St. Lawrence Rivers, and of the many Indigenous people and their ancestors who have lived here over time. Like many American museums, the Remington Museum is far behind in acknowledging that we exist as uninvited occupiers of Indigenous land. As a museum dedicated to a non-Indigenous artist who frequently represented Indigenous peoples, sometimes in ways that are painful and damaging, I think we have a special responsibility to correct stories and practices that erase Indigenous culture and history and that fail to include Indigenous voices and perspectives.

What is your dream exhibit to curate? Or see someone else curate?

I dream of an exhibit of work by contemporary First Nations/Native American artists, working in every imaginable medium, responding to or reinterpreting individual works by Frederic Remington. There’d be a knock-out catalog with writings by scholars and public intellectuals, artists and activists, as well as a series of artists’ residencies, gallery talks and a symposium.—