The Cowboy Artists of America (CAA) is an exclusive organization of artists that was founded in 1965. It was founded in 1965 by four prominent western artists, Joe Beeler, Charlie Dye, John Hampton and George Phippen, who have all since died. Since its inception, the exclusive organization of artists has always been dedicated to portraying the lifestyles of the cowboy and the American West, both as it was and as it endures. The CAA was founded in 1965 in Sedona, Arizona and held its first art show in 1966 at the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1973, the annual event moved to the Phoenix Art Museum. In April 2011, the museum announced that it would no longer host the event. [1]
In 2015, the CAA's 50th anniversary exhibition was to be held at the Scottsdale Museum of the West in Scottsdale, Arizona. [2]
The artists' works, highly sought after by western collectors, often fetch high prices. As an example, Howard Terpning's Cooling Off the Hard Way sold for $305,000 at the 2003 Santa Fe Art Auction.
As of 2015, the CAA had cumulatively had 77 artists as members. [2] Notable members have included:
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and is part of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Named Scottsdale in 1894 after its founder Winfield Scott, a retired U.S. Army chaplain, the city was incorporated in 1951 with a population of 2,000. At the 2020 census, the population was 241,361, which had grown from 217,385 in 2010. Its slogan is "The West's Most Western Town". Over the past two decades, it has been one of the fastest growing cities and housing markets in the United States.
Red Ryder is a Western comic strip created by Stephen Slesinger and artist Fred Harman which served as the basis for a wide array of character merchandising. Syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association, the strip ran from Sunday, November 6, 1938, through 1965.
Charles Marion Russell, also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, and landscapes set in the western United States and in Alberta, Canada, in addition to bronze sculptures. He is known as "the cowboy artist" and was also a storyteller and author. He became an advocate for Native Americans in the west, supporting the bid by landless Chippewa to have a reservation established for them in Montana. In 1916, Congress passed legislation to create the Rocky Boy Reservation.
Joe Neil Beeler (1931–2006) was an American illustrator, artist, and sculptor specializing in the field of Western art. In 1965, he cofounded the Cowboy Artists of America (CAA) with Charlie Dye, John Hampton, and George Phippen.
Solon Hannibal de la Mothe Borglum was an American sculptor. He is most noted for his depiction of frontier life, and especially his experience with cowboys and native Americans.
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 Western and Native American art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of American rodeo photographs, barbed wire, saddlery, and early rodeo trophies. Museum collections focus on preserving and interpreting the heritage of the American West. The museum becomes an art gallery during the annual Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale each June. The Prix de West Artists sell original works of art as a fund raiser for the museum. The expansion and renovation was designed by Curtis W. Fentress, FAIA, RIBA of Fentress Architects.
Cowboy culture is the set of behaviors, preferences, and appearances associated with the attitudes, ethics, and history of the American cowboy. The term can describe the content or stylistic appearance of an artistic representation, often built on romanticized impressions of the wild west, or certain aspects of people's lifestyle, such as their choices in recreation, apparel, and western or southwestern cuisine.
Fred Charles Harman II was an American cartoonist, best known for his popular Red Ryder comic strip, which he drew for 25 years, reaching 40 million readers through 750 newspapers. Harman sometimes used the pseudonym Ted Horn.
Russell "Red" Steagall is an American actor, musician, poet, and stage performer, who focuses on American Western and country music genres.
George Phippen was an American sculptor and painter from Arizona. He was the co-founder and first president of the Cowboy Artists of America. He is the namesake of the Phippen Museum in Prescott, Arizona.
Frank McCarthy was an American artist and realist painter known for advertisements, magazine artwork, paperback covers, film posters, and paintings of the American West.
Howard Terpning is an American painter and illustrator best known for his paintings of Native Americans.
The Rockwell Museum is a Smithsonian Affiliate museum of American art located in the Southern Tier region of New York in downtown Corning, New York. Frommer's describes it as "one of the best-designed small museums in the Northeast." In 2015, The Rockwell Museum was named a Smithsonian Affiliate, the first in New York State outside of New York City.
Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West is located in Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona on the former site of the Loloma Transit Station, and opened in January 2015. The two-story, 43,000-square-foot museum features the art, culture and history of 19 states in the American West, Western Canada, and Mexico.
Irene Hardy Clark is a Navajo weaver. Her matrilineal clan is Tabaahi and her patrilineal clan is Honagha nii. Her technique and style is primarily self-taught, incorporating contemporary and traditional themes.
John Coleman is an American sculptor and painter. His subject matter focuses on the American West, especially Native American historical and mythological figures of Southwestern United States. His works are held in the permanent collections of the Briscoe Western Art Museum, The James Western and Wildlife Museum, Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Joslyn Art Museum, Gilcrease Museum, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Tucson Museum of Art, and Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West.
Lloyd Donald Brinkman was an American businessman, cattle breeder, civic leader and art collector. He was the owner of "the largest floor covering distributor in the US," and 350 pizza parlors with Gatti's Pizza. He bred Brangus cattle, and he was a significant collector of Western art.
Ray Swanson was an American painter of the American West, especially Native Americans.
Valjean McCarty Hessing was a Choctaw painter, who worked in the Bacone flatstyle. Throughout her career, she won 9- awards for her work and was designated a Master Artist by the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in 1976. Her artworks are in collections of the Heard Museum of Phoenix, Arizona; the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Southern Plains Indian Museum in Anadarko, Oklahoma; and the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian of Santa Fe, New Mexico, among others.