Chaotic Fury

Collector’s Focus Rodeo

By John O’Hern

In the time of the conquistadors, Mexican vaqueros would gather informally after a roundup to compete to see who was the best roper or bronco rider. The tradition migrated north to the United States and Canada, eventually evolving into festivals and frontier days organized by local communities. Buffalo Bill staged his first Wild West Show in 1882, an extravaganza that paralleled the development of rodeos. The word rodeo, however, was rarely used in the early years and didn’t become officially sanctioned until the 1940s.Bonhams, Cowboy Sport (Bulldogging), oil on canvas board, 23½ x 27½", by Armin Hansen (1886-1957).

The informal local shows began to become more organized in 1912, when an American trick roper, Guy Weadick (1885-1953), was hired by some Calgary businessmen to manage the first Calgary Stampede. He returned to run the Victory Stampede in 1919, in honor of Canadian soldiers returning from World War I. The Stampede offered “$25,000 in cash prizes.” Today the Calgary Stampede attracts over 1 million visitors and offers nearly $2 million in prizes.

Weadick invited Charles M. Russell (1864-1926) to ship 24 paintings and eight bronzes to be exhibited at the 1919 Stampede. One of Russell’s watercolors was reproduced on a poster for the event.

Russell was born in St. Louis and dreamed of being a cowboy. He went to Montana when he was 16, eventually securing work as a cowboy and a wrangler. He came to admire the Plains Indians and, in the summer of 1888, he lived near their camps near Alberta.A watercolor reproduced on the 1919 Calgary Stampede poster, by Charles M. Russell (1864-1926).

In 1893 he began to dedicate his life to art and produced over 4,000 works and became known as “the cowboy artist,” declaring modestly, “I don’t know the difference between a warm color and a cool one.”

Armin Hansen (1886-1957) first studied with his father, Herman Wendelborg Hansen (1854-1924), a well-known painter of Western scenes. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, his father sent him to study in Europe, returning to Monterey to paint scenes of the sea and fishermen as well as scenes of the rodeo in Salinas. He returned to the subject of rodeos in the 1930s. Scott Shields, curator of the Crocker Art Museum and of the exhibition Armin Hansen: The Artful Voyage, writes that Hansen “loved rodeo—the sheer dynamism and color of it. Painting a horse in the air with dust flying, there’s a lot to capture. In both cases—rodeo and fishing—people are working in close communion with nature.”

Shields describes Hansen’s bold technique. “Sometimes there are just suggestions of objects or people—a whole cowboy might be four brushstrokes and the dust being kicked up obscures things. Western paintings that precede Armin Hansen are not so painterly.”Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Power Stroke, 14 x 11", by Jan Mapes.

Julie Bender, Homestretch, pyrography with acrylics, 20 x 30"

In 1936, the Los Angeles Times critic Arthur Miller, wrote, “Remington and Russel [sic] were historians of our frontier days. Hansen goes a step further, he not only dramatizes, but aestheticizes. An apparently chaotic fury of color resolves itself into all the picturesque paraphernalia of the Rodeo.” Hansen’s Cowboy Sport (Bulldogging) is an example of his “chaotic fury of color.”

Jan Mapes’ love of horses came before her love of art. She came to love horses visiting her grandparents’ farm in Arkansas. “I am amazingly blessed to live in a great ranching community in Southeast Colorado with my husband, Jim,” she says. “Over the years we’ve raised and he’s trained cutting horses, run yearling cattle and immensely enjoyed the land and people around us. After Jim and I were married, we went to Santa Fe for our honeymoon. I remember walking through the galleries, looking at sculptures thinking, I’ve got to try that. Funny thing was, Jim had tried his hand at a little sculpting and offered me the stuff he had. That was over 30 years now!”Julie Bender, High Octane, pyrography with acrylics, 20 x 26"

C.M. Russell Museum, William Hart on Bucking Bronco, 1919, black and white photograph, 8 x 10”, unknown photographer. Collection of the C. M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, MT, museum purchase.

Her painting Power Stroke focuses in on the primary source of energy at the rodeo, the horse, bucking for all its worth.

Continue through this special section to hear from artists that explore the rodeo theme and educate any who wish to begin a collection of the genre.

The C.M. Russell Museum has a history with rodeo-inspired artwork, even extending past the rodeo-adjecent exhibition Return to Calgary. Donna Howell-Sickles’ playful Blue Sky Roper, in the C.M. Russell Museum’s permanent collection, certainly adds to the charm and excitement of rodeo. Elsewhere in the collection is a “doctored” Bill Hart photograph. The Hollywood star took a picture of himself, cut his head out of the image and placed it on a rodeo picture. He then sent the picture to Russell as a joke. Russell was amused by it, and created his own doctored-up image. He took a different photo and painted his own face on top of the cowboy. Both artists were playing with each other, but also acknowledging their interest and respect for rodeo riders.C.M. Russell Museum, Blue Sky Roper, 1997, oil on canvas, by Donna Howell-Sickles. Collection of the C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, MT, museum purchase.

Inspired by the American West, artist Julie Bender’s continued exploration of pyrography keeps her engaged and evolving as an artist. “As I discover more about the scenes I represent in my work,” she says, “I’m keyed into rare moments when an animal exhibits a particular look or behavior that makes my heart race.”

She adds, “My advice to collectors is to display my work where it can be enjoyed and to share its backstory so that the art comes to life.” —