Curating the West

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

Darrell Beauchamp
Executive Director
Museum of Western Art Kerrville, TX
(830) 896-2553 www.museumofwesternart.com

What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why?
The Museum of Western Art is hosting our Annual Roundup Exhibition and Sale September 8 to October 29. That’s always a good event to showcase both established artists and up-and-comers of the Western art world. We’re also very excited about our upcoming exhibition Two Perspectives featuring the works of Scott Christensen and Quang Ho.

What are you reading?
I usually try to have at least two books being read at the same time: one for sheer escape and one for enlightenment in the world of art. Right now those are The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton and The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War by Lynn H. Nicholas. The Time It Never Rained seems appropriate right now because of the drought Texas and the Southwest are suffering. The Rape of Europa fascinates me because of the mystery and drama aspects of the Allies trying to find art stolen by the Nazis. The theft and, in many cases, destruction of so many great works of art during World War II is incredible. And, the attempt to recover them is something that continues today.

Interesting exhibit, gallery opening or work of art you’ve seen recently.
The Museum of Western Art recently hosted Mystic Visions of the West, a retrospective of the career of Western pop artist Billy Schenck. It was a wonderfully refreshing look at an alternative view of the Western art world.

What is your dream exhibit to curate? Or see someone else curate?
For many years I’ve been fascinated by the concept of seeing forgeries and original works of art next to each other. I was first introduced to the idea when I discovered a forgery of a Charles M. Russell painting. Russell experts Ginger Renner and Dr. Van Kirk Nelson and I examined the forgery and the original painting side by side and it was very difficult to tell the difference between the two. Although several exhibitions about forgeries have been done featuring works by European masters, I would love to curate an examination of forgeries of works of the American West, comparing them to the real works and examining their techniques and motivations.

What are you researching at the moment?
Sometimes the research moves from the theoretical to the practical because of the various events happening at our museum. With a building that is getting older, a volunteer force that is aging and increasingly limited funding for the arts, my recent research has been focused on how to solve problems with practical solutions in a cost-effective manner. Museum professionals seem to be under the microscope of late, with patrons and critics constantly looking over our shoulders, examining our “reasons” for doing this show or that. My current research revolves around finding practical solutions and common-sense answers to these questions.—