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''The West as America, Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820–1920'', an art exhibition organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum (then known as the National Museum of American Art, or NMAA) in 1991, caused an unforeseen controversy and according to art critics, "engaged the public in the debate over western revisionism on an unprecedented scale." The paintings at the Smithsonian American Art Museum represent the United States' government’s oldest art collection and in its 160-year history the museum had not received much detrimental publicity before this exhibition. The goal of the curators of ''The West as America'' was to reveal how artists during this period visually revised the conquest of the West in an effort to correspond with a national ideology that favored Western expansionism. By mixing New West historiographical interpretation with Old West art, the curators sought not only to show how these frontier images have defined our idea of the national past but also to dispel the traditional beliefs behind the images. Many who visited the exhibit missed the curator’s point and instead became incensed with what they saw as the curator’s dismantling of the history and legacy of the American western frontier. Republican members of the Senate Appropriations Committee were angered by what they termed the show’s "political agenda" and threatened to cut funds to the Smithsonian Institution. Controversial reviews generated widespread media coverage, both negative and positive, in leading newspapers, magazines, and art journals. Television crews from Austria, Italy and the United States Information Agency vied to videotape the show before its 164 paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures and prints, along with the 55 text panels accompanying the artworks were taken down.〔 Several key factors, including a prominent venue, skillful promotion, widespread publicity, elaborate catalog and the importance of the artworks themselves all contributed to the impact of the exhibition. Timing also played a part in fostering public response both pro and con as the show’s run coincided with events such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the allied victory in the Gulf War, the resurgence of multiculturalism and the revival of public interest in western themes in fashion, advertising, music, literature and film.〔 ==Controversy== The history of the expansion to the west is viewed by some as a vital component in explaining the structure of the United States’ national identity. There are competing visions of the western past that assume different western significances and these newer versions of western history were being emphasized at the show. The NMAA director, Elizabeth Broun stated, “The museum took a major step toward redefining western history, western art and national culture.” The conclusions set forth in the ''The West as America'' were rooted in revisionist studies such as Henry Nash Smith’s ''Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol'' and Myth, Richard Slotkin’s ''Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860'' (1973) and William H. and William N. Goetzmann’s book and 1986 PBS television series, ''The West of the Imagination''.〔 A writer for the ''The Journal of American History,'' Andrew Gulliford, stated in his article entitled ''"The West as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820–1920'' "''The West as America'' gave no praise or tribute to the grandeur and majesty of the western landscape or to the nation-building ethos of the pioneering experience. Instead, exhibition labels presented the truth of conquest and exploitation in US history, an approach that struck many visitors and reviewers as heretical."〔 Other exhibitions and programs that focused on western history include, ''“The American Frontier: Images & Myths”'' at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1973; ''“Frontier America: The Far West”'' at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1975; ''“Treasures of the Old West”'' at the Thomas Gilcrease Institute in 1984; ''“American Frontier Life”'' at the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art in 1987; and, ''“Frontier America”'' at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in 1988.”〔 According to ''The Western Historical Quarterly'' writer, B. Byron Price, the traditions and myths at the core of western art, in addition to the expense of exhibit installations and practical constraints such as time, space, format, patronage, and availability of collections contribute to the resistance of museums to attempt shows of historical revision and why conventional monolithic view of the West as a romantic and triumphant adventure remain the mode in many art exhibits today.〔 Revisionist themes appear more often in the story lines of high-profile temporary and traveling shows like ''The American Cowboy'', organized by the Library of Congress in 1983, ''The Myth of the West'', a 1990 show offering from the Henry Gallery of the University of Washington, and ''Discovered Lands, Invented Pasts'', a cooperative effort of the Gilcrease Museum, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 1992.〔 These shows did not generate the level of controversy seen at the NMAA's ''The West As America'' exhibit. According to art reviews, what set apart past shows on the west and ''The West as America'' was the show’s “strident rhetoric”.〔 Andrew Gulliford writes, "Few Americans were prepared for the blunt and incisive exhibit labels, which sought to reshape the opinions of museum visitors and to jar them out of their traditional assumptions about western art as authentic."〔 According to B. Byron Price, "Several people appreciated the serious, critical attention accorded to artwork and found merit in the complexity of analysis and the curator's interpretation of western art."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The West as America Art Exhibition」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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