"Albert Bierstadt: Witness to a Changing West" at Gilcrease

Our guest is Laura Fry, the Senior Curator and Curator of Art at Gilcrease Museum here in Tulsa. She is also one of the curators of a striking new show at that museum, which she tells us about. Per the Gilcrease website: "Gilcrease Museum and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, have partnered to present the groundbreaking exhibition 'Albert Bierstadt: Witness to a Changing West.' Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902) is best known as one of America's premier western landscape artists. But he was also a renowned history painter, a rarely discussed element of his legacy. This exhibition will address Bierstadt's depictions of Native cultures of the Great Plains and American bison, which he approached as key subjects for his art. [The show] features 75 artworks from more than 30 private and institutional lenders. Both Gilcrease and the Center of the West are contributing masterworks from their collections. In addition to signature paintings by Bierstadt, the exhibition includes works by artists of Bierstadt's time (and before), depicting both Native Americans and bison during a period of dramatic change in the West."