Sagebrush and Solitude:
Maynard Dixon in Nevada

March 2, 2024 - July 28, 2024

John Hawley Olds LaGatta Gallery | Floor 3
Robert Z. Hawkins Gallery | Floor 3

Sagebrush and Solitude: Maynard Dixon in Nevada is the first comprehensive exhibition and book to document the early wanderings and extended visits of the accomplished painter Maynard Dixon to the state of Nevada, Lake Tahoe, and the Eastern Sierra. From 1901 to 1939, Dixon made several trips from his San Francisco home to paint and sketch the striking landscapes of the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada. He also wrote numerous poems during his time in the American West. From Dixon’s first Nevada sketching trip on horseback with fellow artist Edward Borein in 1901, to his month-long commission documenting the construction of the Boulder Dam (now known as the Hoover Dam) in Las Vegas in 1934, Dixon captured the beauty of Nevada’s open spaces as well as its developing landscape. Among Dixon’s favorite painting subjects were old homesteads, wild horses, and stands of cottonwood trees, all of which figure prominently into over 100 paintings that will be included in this historic exhibition.

This exhibition is curated by Ann M. Wolfe, Andrea and John C. Deane Family Chief Curator and Associate Director, with scholarly contributions from Donald J. Hagerty, an independent scholar and author of six books on Dixon, including Desert Dreams: The Art and Life of Maynard Dixon. John Ott, professor of art history at James Madison University will contribute an essay on representations of labor and race in Dixon’s Boulder Dam paintings. Ann Keniston, professor of English with a specialty in American Poetry at the University of Nevada, Reno, will write on Dixon’s poems within the context of Modern poetry.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 288-page book published by Rizzoli Electa in New York and is designed by award-winning creative director, Brad Bartlett.

Major Sponsors

Victor and Victoria Atkins
The Bretzlaff Foundation
Carol Franc Buck Foundation
Gabelli Foundation | Mario Gabelli
Sandy Raffealli | Bill Pearce Motors
Phil and Jennifer Satre
Larry and Cathy Spector

Additional Support

Answerwest Inc.
Christie’s
David Dee Fine Arts
D.D. and Paul Felton
Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation
Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities
Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at BYU

Media Sponsor

PBS Reno

IMAGE 1: Maynard Dixon, Wild Horse Country [Humboldt County, NV] (detail), 1927, Oil on canvas, 26 x 30 inches. Collection of the Society of California Pioneers; IMAGE 2: Maynard Dixon, Wild Horses of Nevada, 1927. Oil on canvas, 44 x 50 inches. Collection of the William A. Karges Family Trust; IMAGE 3: Maynard Dixon, Virginia City, 1933. Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches. Collection of the A.P. Hays Family; IMAGE 4: Maynard Dixon, Cowboy and Packhorse, 1934. Oil on canvas, 26 x 30 inches. Ray and Kay Harvey Collection; IMAGE 5: Maynard Dixon, November in Nevada, 1935. Oil on canvas mounted on hardboard, 30 x 40 inches. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Bequest of E. Dixon Heise, 2006.33, Photograph by Randy Dodson, courtesy Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; IMAGE 6: Maynard Dixon, Top of the Ridge, 1933. Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gift of C.R. Smith, 1976; IMAGE 7: Maynard Dixon, One Night Stand [Burrell Hot Spring, NV], 1937. Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches. Crocker Art Museum, gift of Anne Anderson, 2020.29.2