By Chad Scott
"Violence defined the West of Fredric Remington and Charlie Russell. Gunfights. Animal slaughters. Stolen land.
"Cowboys shooting Indians. Cowboys shooting each other. Cowboys killing wildlife.
"All of what they painted and sculpted happened, of course, but their artwork goes beyond simple observation. Their artwork mostly glorified this barbarism.
"Russell and Remington were Manifest Destiney artists, romanticizing white settler colonialism’s take-by-force and divine right approach to the West. Whoever was abused or robbed or died along the way, well… all in the name of “progress.”
"Not so with Maynard Dixon. A turn of the century contemporary of Russell and Remington, Dixon’s West offered empathy. Dixon painted a quieter West. A more peaceful West..."