Book Talk, Presentation, Signing With Michele Corriel, Author of MONTANA MODERNISTS: Shifting Perceptions of Western Art

Book Talk, Presentation, Signing
With Michele Corriel, Author of

MONTANA MODERNISTS: Shifting Perceptions of Western Art

Saturday, February 18 th , 3 PM
Wheatgrass Books
120 N. Main, Livingston, MT
406.224-4510

Wheatgrass Books will host art historian and Bozeman author Michele Corriel for
a book talk, presentation and book signing on Saturday February 18 th at 3 pm. Dr.
Michele Corriel, an Assistant Teaching Professor at MSU-Bozeman will discuss her
new book "The Montana Modernists: Shifting Perspectives on Western Art."
Dr. Corriel holds a Master’s in Art History and a PhD in American Studies/American Art
from Montana State University, Bozeman. She has been an art writer for the last 17
years and is on the National Advisory Board for the Bozeman Art Museum. Her talk and
presentation will begin at 3pm and will be followed by a reception an signing.
For many, Charles M. Russell’s paintings epitomize life in the West. But in twentieth-
century postwar Montana, an avant-garde art movement—Montana
Modernism—brewed. Its pioneers— Jessie Wilber, Frances Senska, Bill Stockton,
Isabelle Johnson, Robert DeWeese, and Gennie DeWeese—created a community and
pedagogy where, in stark contrast to stereotypical romanticized western art and frontier
history themes, modernist ideas and art flourished, expanding traditional definitions of
Western art.
The first book fully devoted to the topic, Montana Modernists presents stunning artwork
and illuminates a little-known art movement. Divided into three sections, Corriel’s
exploration concentrates on place, teaching/artistic lineage, and community. The
isolation, beauty, and complexity of their surrounding landscape served as a backdrop
and influenced the lives and art of these ranchers, teachers, and professors. Next,
Corriel traces artistic lineages to describe how each arrived at their particular artistic
style. Community, the third section, offers a thorough study of their teaching styles, art
techniques, and social gatherings to demonstrate how a thriving community of like-
minded artists, writers, dancers, musicians, and philosophers opposed the grand
narrative of the West, a movement that still resonates in contemporary Montana art.

“This book is singular, a milestone. It illuminates a precinct of western American art
history that has been neglected by scholars up until now.”
—Gordon McConnell, artist, writer, and Montana Governor’s Arts Award recipient
“Montana Modernists presents important biographical histories of six Montana artists for
the first time in one book, and provides valuable context for understanding how
modernism evolved in Montana from the influences of artists like Cezanne to the
movements of Dada, cubism, abstract expressionism, and the Bauhaus.”
—Steven Jackson, former curator of Art and Photography at the Museum of the Rockies