June 28, 2007
The Heart of the West—in the South: An Interview with Jim Dunham Posted by Allen Barra at 10:15 AM EST Jim Dunham’s heroes have always been cowboys and Indians. As an actor (he has toured in a one-man show as Mark Twain), fast-draw artist and frontier historian (most recently in several episodes of the Tales of The Gun series on the History Channel), Dunham has spent more than four decades collecting information and artifacts on the West and sharing his knowledge with fellow enthusiasts all over the country. He is also an accomplished painter and a Western art scholar and is director of special projects and historian for the Booth Western Art Museum, in Cartersville, Georgia. The museum’s slogan: “Explore the West without leaving the South.” Dunham recently curated Beautiful Utility: Decorated Objects from Cowboy and Indian Culture, which runs through September 16. (To see examples of artists Jim mentions and others whose work is on display in the museum, go to the Booth’s website, click on “Collections,” and then click through to individual artists to view their work.) Let’s start with the obvious question: How did one of the most remarkable museums in the country of Old West art and culture come to be in Georgia? There are several museums in the Eastern United States that are devoted to Western American art. Frederic Remington was born in upstate New York, so it stands to reason that his museum should be in his home state. The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indiana and our museum, the Booth in Georgia, have similar histories. Both grew out of collections put together by families over a number of decades, and both families decided to build museums to house their collections in their hometowns, so that they could visit often. What becomes clear when you think about it is the fact that all of us who were raised in the years following World War II had our lives filled with Wild West entertainment. It mattered little what part of the country you were raised in. I love the West and was born in a Chicago suburb. There were more Westerns on TV in the 1950s than there are reality and CSI shows today. The oil boom in America made rich people out of struggling Oklahoma and Texas ranchers, and they began to pay handsomely for cowboy- and Indian-themed art for their homes. The result was that during the time when the art world was enthralled with abstraction, many an outstanding painter or illustrator was turning to Western subjects to make a living. The Booth collection is dominated by living artists who were influenced by the movies, just like the people who bought the art. What we are finding out is that people from all over the United States personally relate to these romantic, storytelling works. So it’s a case of life imitating art imitating life? Or something like that? Which Western artists are the most representative among current Western-themed artists? And which artists whose work is in the Booth are among your favorites? The most honored and prizewinning Western artist working today is Howard Terpning, who had a painting sold at auction last year for $1.4 million. The Booth collection includes five of his best. My favorite is called River Crow, which shows two Native American Crow Indians on horseback with their image reflected in a pool of water. [To see this painting on Mr. Terpning’s website, go here.] I also like the artists that came out of an illustration background, i.e., Harold Von Schmidt, Tom Ryan, John Clymer, W. H. D. Koerner, and John Hampton. The most popular artists with the public are those who paint in a very realistic style. Don Crowley, Paul Calle, and Frank MacCarthy are the best examples. The museum, however, has great diversity, and we also have works by Andy Warhol, Fritz Scholder, and Thom Ross, who portray the West in a unique way. You can see many of these artists on our website. The Booth’s newest current exhibit, for which you are the curator, is called Beautiful Utility: Decorated Objects from Cowboy and Indian Culture. That’s an intriguing title. What does it mean? What objects does it include? The Booth’s collection is essentially made up of paintings and sculpture, plus an original 1865 Abbott-Downing company stagecoach and an antique Western mud wagon. Our 80,000-square-foot museum particularly features living artists who paint, draw, and sculpt the American frontier movement and today’s ranch life. For a change of pace, our executive director, Seth Hopkins, asked me to curate an exhibition of gear or “trappings” of both the cattle-punching era and the Native Americans. I accepted, and it turned out to be quite a challenge. My goal was to display practical items and clothing used in everyday life, with the stipulation that they must be highly decorated—cowboy and Indian equipment that transcended its useful purposes and was art as well. Working with a few collectors in the greater Atlanta area led us to some absolutely magnificent examples of Plains Indian quill and bead work, pottery, basketry, and silver work from the Southwest, and wonderful examples of artistic expression from each area of Native Americans. For examples of cowboy “beautiful utility,” we were loaned silver mounted saddles, engraved guns, tooled-leather equipment, and silver- and gold-enhanced spurs. Eventually 14 collectors contributed to the exhibit, and about 180 objects are now on display, until September 16th, 2007. The Western artist Charles M. Russell wrote about a cowboy who was the fashion leader in camp and had the best gear that could be bought. Lacking mirrors on the trail, he would admire the shadow he and his horse cast on sunny days. The other punchers called him “Pretty Shadow.” We chose the name “Beautiful Utility” to capture the essence of gear like that cowboy’s and similar Native American objects and clothing, whose aesthetic far exceeded what was required for their utility. A unique feature of the Booth is the way it goes beyond art objects to encompass other aspects of the frontier tradition. For instance, one exhibit I saw featured a history of Western film posters, from the early silents to the twenty-first century. You also have a state-of-the-art theater. What goes on there? We generally use the theater, which seats 145, for live performances, art lectures, and music groups. Once a month we have “Western Movie Sunday” and show a double feature of classic old Western films. I usually give a talk, and sometimes we have a trivia-and-fact-filled handout for the folks who attend. It’s a very popular event with folks who grew up with Westerns and want to see them again and share them with their kids and grandkids. In October you have the Fifth Annual Southeastern Cowboy Symposium and Festival. Can you give us a brief definition of cowboy poetry? The tradition of cowboy poetry can be traced back to the old days when cowboys entertained one another around the chuck wagon with songs, stories, and poems. Poetry gatherings have become popular in recent years due especially to Elko, Nevada’s Cowboy Poetry Gathering and publicity from The Tonight Show and other media coverage. And in addition to our annual Cowboy Symposium and Festival, the Booth hosts a special cowboy poetry event every March. Past performers have included Don Edwards, Rex Allen, Jr., and Michael Martin Murphy. What would we be able to do if we attended the event? The annual Cowboy Symposium and Festival is the single biggest weekend event that the museum hosts. We call it a symposium because we include writers, artists, and historians, and present a series of lectures. Last year, for example, we had author Gary Roberts discuss his book Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend, a biography of John H. “Doc” Holliday, the Georgia dentist who became famous for his adventures with Wyatt Earp. We also feature nationally known cowboy poets and cowboy singers, and this year Riders in the Sky will return for a pair of concerts. Most of the activities are on the four-acre grounds around the museum building, and they include vendors selling everything from saddles to oil paintings. We focus on hands-on activities for the whole family, with a Native American village, Indian dancing, storytelling, Civil and Indian Wars military encampments, demonstrations, and talks. Perhaps the most popular event of the Cowboy Symposium and Festival is the reenactment of the famous O.K. Corral gunfight. With a local group of actors who are interested in Western history, I have put together a 30-minute program that tells the events that led up to the shootout in the vacant lot that cold October day in 1881 Tombstone. We run the actual gunfight in slow motion with explanation and then perform it in real time. The actors fire about 30 blanks in about 30 seconds. Finally, as emcee I talk a little about the aftermath of the event and how we came to know so much about this half minute in history. You’ve been portraying, working with, and lecturing about cowboys and Indians your entire life. I’ve seen you perform several times, and I’m still amazed at the facility with which you can handle a six-gun. Tell us about some of your favorite performances. And which celebrities have you coached in the art of fancy gun handling? After several summers performing at Colorado chuck-wagon supper-entertainment venues in the 1960s for the tourist industry, I was hired by 20th Century–Fox in Los Angeles to perform a fast and fancy gun-handling act for their studio tours. This led to working with actors who needed to learn gun handling. By this time, 1967, most of the famous Western stars like John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, etc., had long ago been coached by people like Arvo Ojala and Rod Redwing. However, I did get to work with Bob Hastings from McHale’s Navy, Clu Gulager from The Virginian, Bill Bixby from The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and others. Bixby was a magician and a fast learner. I told him if he got interested in fast draw the sport, he could be a contender. Years later, I taught Armand Assante gun spinning and did the stunt closeup inserts for the HBO Western Blind Justice. I also taught Scott Bacula and Dean Stockwell how to draw for an episode of Quantum Leap titled “The Last Gunfighter.” My personal favorite program experience came in 1990, when I got to perform my act at the Golden Boot Awards in Hollywood. Gene Autry, along with Pat Buttram, had founded the awards program to honor excellence in Western film and television programming. When I got on stage, in the front row I saw Roy and Dale Rogers, Gene Autry, Pat Buttram, Iron Eyes Cody, Burt Lancaster, Rex Allen, Clayton Moore, Denver Pyle, Noah Beery, Jr., Katharine Ross, Sam Elliott, and Charlton Heston. I said from the stage, “You know, Willie Nelson wrote a song called ‘My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.’ That’s also true for me—and tonight my heroes are here in the room with me.” The icing on the cake was that after my show Gene Autry got up and said my act was the best part of the evening. A clip of me spinning my guns and Gene’s remarks were on Entertainment Tonight the next night. Sadly most of those greats have now passed away, but it was a special night I’ll never forget.
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