Chronicling 50 years of western art
By Kristin Hoerth
Kathryn Mapes Turner, The Wild Heart Sings, oil, 11 x 14.
It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been part of Southwest Art Magazine for almost 27 years now—a little more than half of the 50-year history we celebrate this month. I joined the staff in 1994, as it was gearing up to mark the 25th anniversary. One of the first big projects I worked on was the special issue accompanying the opening of Covering the West. This exhibition of 64 Southwest Art cover artists, organized with the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, debuted there and then traveled to four more western museums. That special issue was packed with both big-picture perspective and countless small details, and it was my introduction to the western art world.
In the decades that followed, many things changed. The magazine, which was an independent entity when I arrived, has since been owned by a series of seven different publishing companies. The editorial staff has been based out of six offices in two states. Instead of 35-millimeter slides of artwork, we now deal in jpeg’s and tiff’s; we fact-check our stories online and not in an extensive library full of actual reference books. We’ve been through the digital revolution, Y2K, September 11th, the recession of 2008-09, and a pandemic.
So yes, there have been some major changes—but many important elements of the magazine have remained constant. Half a century ago, co-founder Bill Freckleton defined the magazine’s goal as to “communicate between the artist, the art gallery, and the public,” and that still rings true, even though today there are many venues for selling art in addition to galleries. And we still make it our mission, as former editor Susan Hallsten McGarry put it, for our pages to “mirror the macrocosm of the western American art movement.”
Most important, our commitment to high standards of artistic and editorial quality remains strong. We focus our profile stories on the best artists working today and our Show Previews on the gallery openings, auctions, and other events that are worthy of your attention. We ask our talented writers to take the time to create great stories, and we ask our graphic designers to treat the images with reverence, all in an effort to match the excellence of the artwork itself.
I am continually in awe of that art and those who create it, and I am grateful to spend my days surrounded by such creativity. It has been a privilege to bring this magazine to you every month, and I hope that you have found as much pleasure in its pages as I have.
This Editor’s Letter appeared in the May 2021 issue of Southwest Art magazine.