Altamira Fine Art owner Jason Williams explores Modernism and the rise of the New West in the October/November 2026 issue of Western Art & Architecture.
Altamira Fine Art owner Jason Williams explores the evolution of Contemporary Western Art in the October/November 2026 issue of Western Art & Architecture. His article, “Modernism and the New West,” traces how generations of artists have brought the visual language of Modernism to the enduring subjects of the American West.
Beginning with early modernists Maynard Dixon and Georgia O’Keeffe, Williams follows the movement through the founding of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, the rise of Native Modernism under figures including Lloyd Kiva New, Fritz Scholder and T.C. Cannon, and Billy Schenck’s pioneering fusion of Pop Art and Western imagery. He also highlights the influential role of dealer Elaine Horwitch and artists including Ed Mell, John Nieto, Dan Namingha, Donna Howell-Sickles and Howard Post in expanding what Western art could become.
At the heart of the article is an idea central to Altamira Fine Art: the West is not a static subject, and the art that tells its stories should not be static either. As Williams writes, the New West is less a single style than a belief that each generation should be free to interpret the West through the visual language of its own time.
Read “Modernism and the New West” in the October/November 2026 issue of Western Art & Architecture.