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Beeler, Joe (b. 1931)

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:12,000.00 USD Estimated At:12,000.00 - 15,000.00 USD
Beeler, Joe (b. 1931)
<strong>Beeler, Joe </strong>
(b. 1931)

<strong>Almost Home</strong>

oil on panel
23 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches (sight)
signed lower left: <i>JOE BEELER</i>

In the annals of American art, few artists have achieved equal success in the field of painting, sculpting, and illustration. Joe Beeler's versatile career continues a tradition initiated with Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. And like Russell, Beeler spent years in the saddle, acquiring intimate knowledge of the Western country and its inhabitants. Although Beeler honed his skills through academic study, he views his experience with ranch life as a vital ingredient of his artistic success. Whether depicting epic historical scenes or cowboy vignettes, Beeler's rugged experience lends veracity and sensitivity to his work.

During Beeler's formative years, he regularly attended summer powwows and had
many friends among the Indians of northeastern Oklahoma. His move to Arizona in
1961 allowed him the opportunity to acquaint himself with Indians of the
southwestern tribes. Many of Beeler's best known paintings and sculptures
accurately depict the Navajos dress, customs and culture.

Of the Navajos, he wrote:

"Today you can still see evidence of the importance the Navajo places on the
possession of horses. On his reservation here in Arizona and New Mexico, the
land is in need of rain most of the year. Much of the Navajos income is derived
from cattle and sheep, and there is hardly enough grass for them, but still an
Indian might own many more horses than he needs." (Hedgpeth, p. 42)

Beeler's painting portrays an Indian herdsman driving his stable of horses home. Beeler took special care to portray the Indian and his accoutrements accurately, including the finely crafted silver concho belt, saddle blanket, and bed roll over the back of the horse. Beeler must have considered <i>Almost Home</i> a significant work. The painting is featured as one of eight color illustrations in his book <i>Cowboys and Indians,</i> the first monograph dedicated to a twentieth century Western artist. -KK




Provenance:
Collection of Harvey Braniger, Jr., circa 1965
Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
Private Collection, New Mexico


Literature:
Joe Beeler, <i>Cowboys and Indians: Characters in Oil and Bronze,</i> Norman,
Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967, illus. p. 6
Don Hedgpeth, <i>Cowboy Artist: The Joe Beeler Story,</i> Flagstaff, Arizona: Northland
Press, 1979