Voices of the Past
Emily: …but as a curator, what did you enjoy about it [being curator]?
Laura: Oh, umm… I enjoyed the most, is really becoming, so deeply attuned to the hand of that one artist Frederic Remington. I really like the super deep and broad study. And I really like staging exhibitions. And I like, and it’s - somebody was asking me recently, ‘Do people ever challenge you and question you and say why did you do that?’ And I’m like, ‘No, but I wish they would.’ [laughter] I really like, I like working [pause] additionally with our jury shows where we get lots of work in by lots of different artists. I like interfacing with the living artists and the jurors who are the ones that decide who gets in the show, or what the art is that gets in the show. But, I always feel like I am making my own artwork when I create the exhibition out of the accumulated artworks. I get to draw connections between artworks that are in the room.
Emily: That’s a really good way to look at it.
Laura: I love it!
Emily: I, I like that a lot. [laughter]
Laura: So that’s, that’s, that’s catnip for me.
Emily: Um - well since I’m sitting with one of the major Frederic Remington experts –
Laura: Mhmm.
Emily: - Um, I guess, as curator, what have you learned about him?
Laura: A couple things. [laughter] Well, I mean, you know, I guess, it’s, that’s a very long answer. But I just have learned a great deal of – I’ve gained a great visual sense for recognizing and appreciating the ways that he accomplished all of his artistic goals. You know, I always love to see a new work by Frederic Remington that I haven’t seen before. And the more you see and you are more able to – it’s like a game. You can look at it and you can kind of fit it in a place in the timeline of his work.
Emily: Like he has periods.
Laura: Oh yeah! Well, you know, he started very relatively young as a[n] illustrator and became popular very quickly and he had to kid of cope. He – he had to meet deadlines and he was developing his techniques to meet his goals which were to get paid for providing an image that would be gazed at by a human being engraver at the magazine who would then look at his drawing or painting and then interpret it and then draw it themselves in pencil on a wood engraving block. So making decisions based on what their eye and their artistic intellect interpret and then carving that, the end of that wood engraving block, with little burins, and making it into a surface that would be inked and printed along with text. So he’s using the words – his words often – [be]cause he was very smart about getting paid for - for text and artwork. So he was kind of wrestling with this communication device; but also, finding a way to create a sense of reality, of deep convincing detail that would make him more salable, that would pursue the magazine’s goal of creating excitement for the reader by having these illustrations going along with text. Because really, I think, to start out, the text was the main event. But it changed as Remington became so sought after and popular that it was his images that were selling the magazines [quiet laughter]. But for instance, with his drawing style, he began working with a pen and paper using lines and cross-hatching and traditional, you know… schoolroom techniques. [quiet laughter] And then after a few years, I think he gained efficiency in mastering the brush and using black and white wash…
