Forever Glacier Grizzly Bear

Opened March 2023

On temporary loan from the Montana Historical Society, this exhibition explored the friendship between Malcolm Mackay and Charlie Russell; resulting in one of the largest and finest collections of Russell masterworks. Seeing his first Russell painting in 1911 while in New York, Malcolm Mackay recognized that Charlie Russell was depicting a vastly disappearing way of life in the West. As the friendship between Russell and Mackay grew, so did Malcolm’s desire to collect more of Russell’s finer works including the commission of famous Russell paintings, like Charles M. Russell and His Friends (1922) and The Roundup (1913). Included in the exhibition are ten oils, five watercolors, and one bronze, as well as other Russell masterworks from the MHS permanent collection.