#philbrook

“When my dad, [Walter Richard West Sr., whose Cheyenne name was Wah-pah-nah-yah], began painting it was during an era when painting — hide painting — it was an act of preservation. Things were recorded; they were put down. He went on to become a recognized artist. He was fascinated by the engagement between traditional Plains painting on the one hand and European Modernism on the other. I learned a great deal from his painting.

“I remember a trip to the Philbrook Museum of Art in Oklahoma. He showed me this Northwest Coast object — I think it was a bowl. So he went about describing it from an art standpoint and what made it beautiful: line, material and composition. Then he said, 'But that’s not what it really means.' And he talked about its meaning as a ceremonial object, as something alive and living. His views had everything to do with how I look at museums.”

I speak with outgoing Autry Museum director Rick West about how the work of his painter father shaped his view of art.