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Third Western States Exhibition At The Brooklyn Museum:This Artwork Is BothContemporary And WesternC harlotte B ender%u2019s \The Western States Show is the Product ofResearch and On-the-Spot Visits By Its CuratorBY SUSAN SPANO WELLSOn June 6, The Brooklyn Museum openedThe Third Western States Exhibition, agathering of the work of artists from pointswest of the Rockies. The exhibitiondemonstrates all the color and vitality weassociate with the Western spirit, and aboveall, the impulse to sprawl, to find a wideopen space %u2014 be it a canvas or a site forsculpture %u2014 and occupy it.The exhibition, which includes 127 artworks by 45 artists, is a project of TheWestern States Arts Foundation, organizedin cooperation with The Brooklyn Museum,sponsored by Philip Morris Inc., andbeautifully mounted by the staff of themuseum, headed by contemporary artcurator, Charlotta Kotik.Most of the artworks assembled are asdistinctively contemporary as they arewestern, though western motifs like thehorse, the cactus, and the cowboy, are stillvery much in evidence. Two horsesculptures by Deborah Butterfield form thecenterpiece of the exhibition, both of themlife-sized metal constructions, imbued withmore energy and verisimilitude than, itseems, the medium of metal should possess.There are also cowboys, evocativelyphotographed by Douglas Kent Hall, BobWade%u2019s grimly funny photos of modern-dayTexas rangers, and Jose Luis Rodriguez%u2019s%u201cFarmworker%u201d portrait, bespeaking the toiland tedium of its subject%u2019s occupation, yetdignifying it with the proportion and treatment of a classical nude.SIGNS OF THE MODERN WESTAs prevalent, though, are the signs andsymbols of the modem West, along with artistic critiques of commercialism that haslittered the prairies and mountain rangeswith junked cars and hot dog stands. ACharlotte Bender painting shows a man in acar amid roadside signs, leveling a pistol athis rearview mirror; AudreyRoll-Preissler%u2019s %u201cEve%u201d stands like agrocery store cardboard cutout, bloated,one imagines, from the consumption of beerand potato chips; and James Drake%u2019s%u201cTrophy Room II,%u201d a huge black %u201cenvironment\ting, poses a darkly articulate argumentagainst the National Rifle Association.But where are the environmental landscapes and the painterly portraits ofcowboys and Indians one might expect froma collection of Western Art? Curator,Charlotta Kotik, explains that these, too,are still being done out West, and are, infact, the most commercially viable form ofWestern art. %u201cIf you%u2019re an artist and youdon%u2019t do cowboys and Indians, it%u2019s hard toget your work seen,%u201d she says. But for thisvery reason, she selected artworks that areless traditional, often essentially abstract,to include in this Third Western States Exhibition.Ms. Kotik sees the choice these artistshave made to live and work outside urbanart centers like New York as an %u201cact ofcourage.%u201d %u201cAit that doesn%u2019t come from NewYork,%u201d she says, %u201cis often not consideredserious.%u201dAn artist like Derek Boshier, though, whohoc turn, ctrilrinff oomrncnn %u00bb *-%u00bb!. ~ A in 4-U%u201e --- %u00bb %u2022 . %u2014 . . . . ..........411 1.1 mexhibition and whose painting is currentlybeing shown at the Totah Stelling gallery inThe four rooms on the fifth floor of TheBrooklyn Museum currently devoted to TheThird Western States Exhibition hold i27artworks by 45 artists. But exhibitioncurator, Charlotta Kotik, studied almost5500 slides submitted by 540 artists in making her selections, a headache-producing,cjrc-gldiiiifc culeipiise, she says.Once she%u2019d winnowed the total down to 120artists, she packed her bags, put on hertraveling shoes, and headed West to visitartists%u2019 studios as far afield as Hawaii,Alaska, and Wyoming. Her 42,000-mile trek,by train, car, bus, and plane, took her tosome of America%u2019s most isolated, hard-tofind places, environments vastly differentfrom the cool marbled halls of the museumwiieie must, curators spend their days.Fortunately, Kotik says, %u201cI%u2019ve traveled a< on tin net! on Pave I /Manhattan, has fared well in his Houstonstudio. His painting is large, partly becauseliving in Houston allows him the kind ofstudio space impossible for artists living inNew York. He believes, too, that whilecurators, buyers, and gallery owners havethousands of artists to choose from in NewYork, when they venture to Houston, theyseldom fail to pass through his studio.Photographer, Marsha Bums, who livesin Seattle, explores highly posed subjects,often with an oversized Polaroid camera,that come more out of her own imaginationthan from her physical locale. %u201cLiving inthe Northwest,%u201d she says %u201cthe climatemakes outdoor experience less attractivethan in, say, Southern California. You growup spending more time indoors My artinvolves cerebral descriptions of who one is%u2014 internal viewing.%u201dWorlds apart from Ms. Burns%u2019s %u201cinteriorviewing%u201d is Patrick Zentz%u2019s conceptual art,objects, part musical, part mechanical, soclosely tied to the Montana environmentfrom which they come, that they actuallymeasure climatic changes and turn thosefluctuations into music, which is then tapedor transcribed. He sees the city as a potential site for his artwork, which would beenriched by the additional element of people. However, he%u2019s most at home on theMontana range, which he farms when notconstructing one of his elaborately conceived and carpentered artworks.The Western States exhibition series waslaunched in 1978 to showcase a wide crosssection of the western region%u2019s contemporary art, and bring to national and international attention those artists who wouldnormally not be recognized outside theirregion.The exhibition, the largest and most comprehensive to date, includes the work of 19painters, 12 sculptors, 7 photographers and7 multi-media artists. Artists werenominated by curators, artists and other artprofessionals from all 14 states.Following its August 5 closing date inBrooklyn, the exhibition will tour thesouthern and western United States throughMay, 1988. The scheduled exhibition sitesare: New Orleans Contemporary ArtCenter ; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; Colorado Springs Fine ArtsCenter; Yellowstone Art Center, Billings;Palm Springs Desert Museum, and SanJose Museum of Art.Curator Kotik would be the first to admitthat finding the thread that unites the 127artworks in the exhibition is next to impossible. From the serenely beautifulceramics of Rick Dillingham to thefrightening %u201cTrophy Room II%u201d environmentof James Drake, they run the gamut, agamut well worth exploring. Fortunately,%u201cgoing West, young man%u201d has been made,by the presence of The Third WesternStates Exhibition, as easy as a trip to TheBrooklyn Museum.HOME ON THE RANGE, The ThirdWestern States Exhibition, shown at TheBrooklyn Museum, 296 Eastern Parkway,Mon.-Sat., 10am-5pm, Sun. lpm-6pm,(closed Tuesdays). Suggested admission|2, students with I.D . Jl. Museummembers, senior citizens and childrenunder 12 accompanied by an adult free.J un e 12, 1986, TH E PHOENIX, Page 9