Austin Museum of Art
Austin, TX
512.495.9224 Downtown - 512.458-8191 Laguna Gloria
Oil Patch Dreams: Images of the Petroleum
Industry in American Art
June 26 - August 22,1999
Oil Patch Dreams: Images of the
Petroleum Industry in American Art, a wide-ranging
exhibition of historic 
and
contemporary twentieth-century art, traces the central role that oil has
played in modern American history and culture. The exhibition begins with
works from early in this century, when oil became a symbol of American prosperity
and progress. Visual artists have long been important recorders and interpreters
of oil's influence in the United States, and particularly in Texas, where
the state's identity has been closely tied to the idea of the "oil
patch dream," the aspiration of attaining wealth and power through
a combination of speculation, intuition, and hard work. Artists from the
state have also reflected more contemporary perspectives on the impact of
oil, 
through
works that suggest more complex assessments of oil's recent role in the
environment and world economy. In approximately 60 paintings, sculpture,
and drawings, artists such as Thomas Hart Benton, Charles Umlauf, Susan
Crile, Andy Warhol, and Bob Wade examine the dramatic contrasts and shifting
boundaries between the myth and realities of oil throughout this century.
Early in this century, artists were attracted by the new
technology, one that contributed to the growing concept of Modernism and
its belief in unbridled progress. They romanticized the oil boom of the
1920s and were fascinated by the machinery of oil exploration. In the 1930s,
WPA muralists portrayed the oil industry as a bastion of security and prosperity
in the midst of widespread economic and social uncertainty.
As the century progressed and the United States became
increasingly dependent on foreign oil, artists' views of the oil industry
became more ambivalent. Some artists, like Charles Umlauf and Bob Wade,
created a 
mythologized,
nostalgic version of the oil industry. Susan Crile's 1991 series of monumental
paintings depicting the oil fires of Kuwait in the Gulf War, dramatize the
political and ecological implications of society's dependence on oil. Contemporary
artists continue to explore the nature of the oil patch dream, which, even
at the end of this century, remains an intrinsic part of the American dream.
Oil Patch Dreams: Images of the Petroleum Industry in
American Art will be accompanied by an illustrated
catalogue as well as by educational programs for adults and young people.
Oil
Patch Dreams: Images of the Petroleum Industry in American Art, the most comprehensive gathering of art related to the oil industry
to date, was organized by the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas
with the generous support of Houston Endowment Inc.; FINA Foundation and
FINA; Chase Bank of Texas; Mamie McFaddin-Ward Heritage Foundation; Summerlee
Foundation; Able-Hanger Foundation; South Hampton Refining Co.; Boots &
Coots Group; Texas Commission on the Arts; Texacota Oil Company; Nona and
Richard Barrett; Torch Collection of Torch Energy Advisors, Inc.; Bessie
and Stewart Chisum; and Southwest Texas State University. It is co-curated
by Jeffrey J. York, the Museum's Executive Director, and by Francine Carraro,
Professor of Art History at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos.
The Austin presentation of Oil Patch Dreams is made
possible by Ford, Fritz, Byrne & Head, L.L.P., The Inland Group L.L.C.,
Roliff Purrington, Mayor, Day, Caldwell, & Keeton, L.L.P., and John
M. Scanlan.
Images from top to bottom:Alexandre Hogue, Pecos Escarpment, 1937,
egg tempera on panel, 28 x 30 inches; Andy Warhol, Mobilgas, 1985,
screenprint and colophon, 38 x 38 inches; Bo Bartlett, Oil Painting,
1996, oil on linen, 84 x 72 inches; Aaron Arion, Spindletop Viewing Her
Gusher, 1903, pastel on linen, 25 1/2 x 39 1/2 inches.
Read more in Resource Library
about Austin Museum of Art.
For further biographical information on selected artists
cited in this article please see America's
Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
rev. 10/18/10
Search Resource
Library for thousands of articles and essays on American art.
Copyright 2010 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.
and
contemporary twentieth-century art, traces the central role that oil has
played in modern American history and culture. The exhibition begins with
works from early in this century, when oil became a symbol of American prosperity
and progress. Visual artists have long been important recorders and interpreters
of oil's influence in the United States, and particularly in Texas, where
the state's identity has been closely tied to the idea of the "oil
patch dream," the aspiration of attaining wealth and power through
a combination of speculation, intuition, and hard work. Artists from the
state have also reflected more contemporary perspectives on the impact of
oil, 
through
works that suggest more complex assessments of oil's recent role in the
environment and world economy. In approximately 60 paintings, sculpture,
and drawings, artists such as Thomas Hart Benton, Charles Umlauf, Susan
Crile, Andy Warhol, and Bob Wade examine the dramatic contrasts and shifting
boundaries between the myth and realities of oil throughout this century.
