Thomas Brent Smith

In the opening essay, Donald Hagerty, independent scholar and consultant on the art and cultures of the American West, provides a biographical account of Dixon's Arizona years, from 1900 to his death in 1946. Little is said of his youth other than his well known letter to Frederic Remington, whose work he admired, at the age of sixteen.

Thomas Brent Smith, curator of the American West at the Tuscan Museum of Art, in his essay Evading Conflict, takes a critical look at Dixon's work and how he departed from the then traditional depiction of the Old West. He draws interesting parallels and opposites with regard to Frederic Remington. While Remington portrayed both the indigenous and the immigrant population of the West with distain and reproach, Dixon's depictions were sympathetic, his renderings bestowing the Native Americans dignity, the oppressed with power. It is a thoughtful, perceptive and accessible account. Both essays are illustrated with period photographs and the artist's work.

Following the essays is a chronological presentation of Maynard Dixon's work, including the paintings, sketches and a few examples of his graphic work. In total there are over 160 illustrations, all reproduced in colour including the monochrome drawings and photographs. Most of the work is reproduced to a good size, with many full-page and a few double-page spreads, and a few detail images. At least one painting is shown almost actual size; that along with the detail images give a clear picture of Dixon's brush work.

The book provides a detailed list of works and a selected bibliography but does not include an index.

It is a very attractive book, a good size and almost square in format, and while there is inevitably some duplication of pictures with the other readily available Maynard Dixon monograph: Escape to Reality, The Western World of Maynard Dixon by Linda Jones Gibbs, there is also much that is "new"; A Place of Refuge contains well over 130 illustrations of the artists works while Escapes to Reality has about 100.… (mehr)