Claggett/Rey Gallery, Edwards, CO August 1-31
Hearing about The new exhibition Cowboys North and South at Claggett/Rey Gallery celebrating the 100th anniversary of Will James’s first book—and taking its title from that book—made me think of his best-known work, the 1927 Newberry Award-winner Smoky that has been filmed no fewer than three times. I hadn’t read it since I was a kid, but the first few pages took me back. One sentence alone will give you an idea of the “vernacular” that attracted Max Perkins, the great editor who had Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner and Thomas Wolfe in the Scribner’s stable: “Smoky shivered as he watched that strange crethure get off one of his kin, a horse just like any of the bunch him and his manny was running with, all excepting for that funny hunk of leather on his back; pretty soon the human fumbled around a while and then that hunk of leather was pulled off, the horse was turned loose, shook himself, and walked towards Smoky and the bunch.” It’s the simplicity, the directness, the deliberate misspelling of “creature” as “crethure,” the linking of images without concern for grammar. You’re in the head of the little colt, watching his world unfold before him. Smoky works because, for James, the horse was the locus of life and culture.
Being in the “head of the little colt,” as it turns out, is an excellent metaphor for what Claggett/Rey owner Bill Rey wants to convey in Cowboys North and South. “In his day,” Rey says, “all kinds of Americans knew about Will James, not just those in the West. James belongs with other artists I love—Borein, Dixon, Beeler, Lon Megargee, Nicolas Firfires—artists who lived their lives and made their art from the backs of horses, artists who had great empathy for the equine world. My idea was to pull a like-minded group of artists for this exhibition, people who express their creative truth through the larger, global lens of horse culture.”
As Rey puts it, horse culture is cross-cultural, and art and horsemanship are equally “incredible once they reach a certain level.” In other words, whether the horse culture is Bedouin or Gaucho, Buckaroo or Plains, Vaquero or Mongolian, the appreciation for artistry on horseback is the same the world over. Accordingly, in addition to showcasing works by celebrated painters and sculptors such as Bill Owen, Jim Reynolds, Bill Anton, Robert Lougheed, Jim Rey and Joe Beeler, Bill Rey has enlisted artists who specialize in Western wares to exhibit. Among them are metal master Scott Hardy; superb leather tooler Cary Schwarz; California saddle blanket weaver Linda Hayden; and three artists from Argentina: rawhide braiders Pablo Lozano and Maximo Prado, and silversmith Javier Ribeyrol. The show runs August 1 to 31, with a reception on August 10 with RSVP requested.
Signed rare volumes of James’s books will be on hand as well as some of his artwork, including the kinetic illustration, NEVADA COWBOY, alongside the article—written by James—that it illustrated. One look at NEVADA COWBOY—or any of the works in Cowboys North and South—and any of the many horsemen and horsewomen throughout history would know they were looking at the work of a kindred spirit, a spirit of the horse. —James D. Balestrieri
contact information(970) 476-9350claggettrey.com
This story appeared in the August/September 2024 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.
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