The term “Wild West” conjures up Hollywood images of cowboys and Indians, midday shootouts and saloon brawls, square-jawed heroes and black-hatted villains.
But the true history of the American West is infinitely more complex and diverse, as an upcoming exhibition at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, will demonstrate.
Knowing the West: Visual Legacies of the American West, opening September 14, is the first major traveling exhibition to explore people’s views of the American West. It aims to tell a broader story and showcase the diverse groups that have shaped the art and life of the West.
Co-curators of the exhibition are Mindy N. Besaw, curator of American art at Crystal Bridges, and Jami C. Powell, a citizen of the Osage Nation and assistant director for curatorial affairs and curator of Indigenous art at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.
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The goal of Knowing the West is to look beyond the stereotypical scenes created in fiction and reveal essential and often overlooked stories of the West through the works of Native American artists, women, and people of the many diverse cultures who played a role in creating the American West.
“The art of the American West,” say the curators, “tells stories of resilience through innovation, adaptability and resistance. Native American artists in particular have used art to transform, adapt and challenge dominant structures.”
The exhibition includes works from Tulsa’s two largest museums, the Gilcrease Museum and the Philbrook Museum of Art, as well as the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
“Knowing the West” will be on view at Crystal Bridges through January 27. The exhibition will then travel to the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida, from March 26 to August 31. The final stop on the exhibition tour will be the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh from May 2 to August 9, 2026.
A book accompanying the exhibition will be published on September 10th.
Crystal Bridges is located at 600 Museum Way in Bentonville, Arkansas. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (8 p.m. Thursday through Friday). The museum is closed on Tuesdays. For more information: crystalbridges.org
