The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 95, July 1991 - April, 1992 Page: 121
598 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
the use of color, while his Zunz Olla Maidens demonstrates virtuoso brushwork
but poor research (wrong hairdos). But then the objective of this book is to make
us look at art not documents, and this objective McKay accomplishes very well.
Unzverszty of Texas at Austin WILLIAM H. GOETZMANN
The Art of Tom Lea. Compiled by Kathleen G. Hjerter. Introduction by William
Weber Johnson. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1989.
Pp. xv+256. Foreword, acknowledgments, introduction, color plates, illus-
trations, index. $39.95.)
This book is a treasure concerning one of Texas's prized natural wonders:
the artist, illustrator, writer Tom Lea of El Paso.
There have been other books by and about Tom Lea, but this one by
Kathleen Hjerter gives us a rounded picture of the whole man and is very satis-
fying indeed. The selections of Lea's drawings and paintings have been made
with fine discrimination to show every aspect of this multitalented man's artistic
output. William Weber Johnson's introduction is a masterpiece of condensa-
tion, telling more in a few pages about Tom Lea's life and times and what
makes him tick than the ordinary biographer or introducer could have done in
a couple of hundred pages. This introduction is a classic that should serve as a
model for others introducing a work.
Johnson's introduction illustrates that in Tom Lea we have one of the few
first-class intellects in American art. Since 1900oo America has had many great
artists, but only a handful of them-John Sloan, George Bellows, Thomas Hart
Benton, and Tom Lea-are also first-rate intellects, standing out like giants
among the pygmies.
The Art of Tom Lea is a beautifully designed and printed coffee-table book, but
one that is meant to be looked at and read and savored. It is a good book, a
good read, and it leaves you wishing there was more.
Those for whom this book is an introduction to Tom Lea will find a dazzling
array of artistic talent displayed, a cornucopia of visual delights. Those who are
familiar with some of Lea's work will find myriad examples of rarely seen or
exhibited works of extraordinary complexity-simplicity and haunting beauty.
This is not a book to check out of the library-this is a book to own and live
with and enjoy.
Austin, Texas CREEKMORE FATH
The Cattlemen. By W. R. McAfee. (Alvin: Davis Mountain Press, 1989.
Pp. x+326. Acknowledgments, introduction, photographs, index. $29.95.)
Prominent attention has been given in historical literature to large ranches in
Texas, but relatively little has been given the thousands of small owner-
operated ranches that have made up the bulk of" cattle-raising activities in the
state. This neglect is beginning to be rectified as exemplified by Lawrence
Clayton's recent biography, Watkins Reynolds Matthews. The Cattlemen, the story
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 95, July 1991 - April, 1992, periodical, 1992; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117153/m1/149/?rotate=90: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.