Current Exhibitions

The Russell Museum is pleased to present Space Silence Spirit: Maynard Dixon's West, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. A.P. Hays of Paradise Valley, Arizona.  This traveling exhibition includes more than sixty paintings, drawings, and illustrations by the modernist Western painter Maynard Dixon (1875-1946).  The works span the six decades of Dixon's career, representing his travels in the American West from his native California to Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Montana.

Accompanying the exhibition are photographs by Dorothea Lange (who was married to Dixon from 1920 to 1935), and correspondence, including illustrated Christmas greetings between Charlie Russell and Dixon.

The exhibition will be on display from October 15 to January 31, 2010.

In the foreword of the exhibition catalogue, Abe Hays writes: 

A lifelong nonconformist in art as well as life, the fiercely independent Dixon scorned schools, fashions, trends, and movements.  His creed was simple:  Find the truth in the West's spirit, its vastness, solitude and power; interpret the land's relevance to people and its dominance over their very spirit and lives; and finally, with enormous clarity, simplicity, and honesty, portray the culture of the Native Peoples and their special metaphysical harmony with the land, their gods, and lives.