Page 76 - 2015 Russell Catalogue

2015 SymposiumA New Vision of Wilderness: Nineteenth-century American Art,Conservation, and the National Park MovementEducational SymposiumMansfield Convention Center, Missouri Room March 21, 2015Michael Duchemin, Ph.D.Michael Duchemin, Ph.D., Executive Director, C.M. Russell MuseumWelcome and introduction.C.M. Russell: Wildlife Art and Wildlife ConservationSarah BurtSarah Burt, Chan and Clara Ferguson Chief Curator, C.M. Russell MuseumIntroduction of symposium speakers.Joan Troccoli, Ph.D.Joan Troccoli, Ph.D., independent curator and art historian, founding director of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art, Denver Art MuseumCatlin’s Pictured Land of Silence and Russell’s West That Has PassedGeorge Catlin’s proposal for a prairie preserve in which Plains Indians and bison would pursue age-old patterns of existence is recognized as the first statement of the “National Park idea.” However, Catlin’s advocacy of a site on the relatively monotonous Great Plains and his inclusion of Indians are diametrically opposed to the geologically spectacular landscapes, forcibly emptied of their Native American residents and characteristic of early national parks as they were actually established.Catlin’s national park vision was impossible to achieve in concrete terms, butit is fully realized in his paintings and prose. These, in turn, became pillars in the artistic and philosophical foundations of Charles M. Russell’s West That Has Passed. The relationship between Catlin’s and Russell’s conceptions of the western American past is also a key to understanding national parks as creations of art as well as nature.Photo courtesy of John Abramson Photography