One of the top Western museum exhibitions and sales in the country, the Quest for the West, returns to the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis with 50 exceptional artists presenting new works, all of them available for purchase by collectors.
John Fawcett, A Hard Day’s Night, oil, 18 x 24”
The museum, located deep within the Midwest, offers unique opportunities to artists and collectors from different regions of the country to meet. And the museum’s collection, full of incredible works by Western and Native American artists, helps set the stage for a high-quality exhibition and sale. The museum is named after Harrison Eitlejorg, whose personal art collection serves as the foundation for the museum’s permanent collection, which has major pieces from many of the Western greats. 
Josh Elliott, High Country Midnight, oil, 18 x 24”
William Haskell, Southwest Sentinel, acrylic on panel, 20 x 16”This year’s Quest for the West, which kicks off September 9 and 10 with the sale weekend, will feature artists such as Gerald Balciar, John Buxton, G. Russell Case, Bruce Cheever, Tim Cherry, Brent Cotton, Mikel Donahue, C. Michael Dudash, Josh Elliott, Deborah Copenhaver Fellows, Robert Griffing, George Hallmark, Karin Hollebeke, Donna Howell-Sickles, Doug Hyde, Mark Kelso, Curt Mattson, Krystii Melaine, Dean Mitchell, Jay Moore, P.A. Nisbet, Howard Post, Gladys Roldan-de-Moras, Sandy Scott, Adam Smith, Daniel Smith and H. David Wright, as well as many others. New artists this year are Abigail Gutting, William Haskell, Don Oelze, Mateo Romero, Brad Teare and Gayle Weisfield.
Events kick off on September 9 with an evening reception and a fixed-price, by-draw miniature sale, which is a popular component to the annual event. On September 10, the main sale and reception will take place at 5 p.m., followed by a banquet and awards ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Starting September 11 and continuing through October 9, the Quest for the West galleries will be open to the public and any unsold artwork will be available for purchase at that time.
Robert Griffing, No Warning, oil, 30 x 36”
Abigail Gutting, Pounding the Dust, oil on linen, 36 x 24”
Brett Allen Johnson will be returning to this year’s show after a strong first showing in 2021. He will be bringing the work Abundance, featuring marshmallow-like clouds that seem to be bobbing over the desert floor. His fresh perspectives on the West have been winning him new collectors wherever he shows, including in Indianapolis. “The idea with Abundance is the nature of the desert and the soul,” he says. “The body craves abundance in physical things, in pleasure, the cornucopia. This painting is about abundance for the soul—space and solitude. There’s no greater feeling of space, of the breadth of the West, than clouds receding over a vast plain of sage. That’s abundance.”
Top: Gladys Roldan-de-Moras, Anticipation, oil, 40 x 30”; Jay Moore, Autumnal Waters, oil, 40 x 30”. Bottom: Brett Allen Johnson, Abundance, oil, 28 x 50”
Another artist who is doing exciting things in the Western art world is William Haskell, who will be showing for the first time at the Quest. Haskell’s work has a modernist edge, with shattered lines and fragmented forms. There is movement in his work, even with the static objects, as the viewer’s eye slides around his gentle lines and vibrant colors. In Southwest Sentinel, he paints a prickly pear cactus framed by a billowing bloom of clouds within dramatic canyons. “For many years, the cactus has been one of my favorite subjects not only because they have such a modernist look and feel to them, making them a natural fit for the way I like to paint, but also because I consider the cactus an ultimate survivor in our world,” Haskell says. “Because of this, I have a tremendous amount of respect for them. I hope you enjoy Southwest Sentinel.”
C. Michael Dudash, In the Shadow of Majesty, oil on linen, 40 x 30”
Don Oelze, As Far as the Eye Can See, oil, 40 x 48”One of the more regular Quest for the West artists is John Fawcett, who will be returning with a mixture of oil and watercolor works. In A Hard Day’s Night, Fawcett paints horses in a moonlit scene. The title, possibly borrowed from the hit Beatles song, even has four horses as if to suggest John, Paul, George and Ringo. “It is not unusual, on large ranches in the West, to see the cowboys’ daily mounts hobbled or tied while they are grabbing a meal or quenching their thirst after work gathering and branding,” Fawcett says of the piece. “Here, I was drawn to the posture of the horses…some ‘hipshod’ and in a relaxed position with their ears back and their necks lowered, truly a ‘hard day’s night’ for them.”
Mikel Donahue, For Want of a Nail, acrylic and gouache, 16½ x 22”
Abigail Gutting’s work primarily focuses on horses, including two of her submitted works, Pounding the Dust and Roll Call, which has nine horses emerging from a dusty haze. For Pounding the Dust, the single horse is painted against a light background as it turns its head away from the viewer. “Everything about this painting is intended to communicate movement and mass,” says Gutting. “It combines traditional realism with hints of abstraction, purposefully, to give a tangible sense of the horse lunging forward. Quite simply, it was a blast from start to finish!”
Howard Post, Last to Ship, oil on canvas, 24 x 36”
Other works include Howell-Sickles’ colorful paintings of women against patterned backgrounds, Roldan-de-Moras’ images of the traditional Mexican escaramuza charra, Buxton’s paintings of Native Americans from the Northeastern Woodlands and Jay Moore’s gorgeous landscape scenes. —
Quest for the West
September 9-October 9, 2022; opening weekend, Sept. 9-10
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
500 W. Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46204
(317) 636-9378, www.eiteljorg.org
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