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Dates: Tuesday, May 13th OR Thursday, May 15th, 9:30am
Location: Olaf Wieghorst Museum, 131 Rea Ave, El Cajon, CA 92020
Parking: Free
Accessible: Partially. The Museum and gardens are accessible; however, there are some steps in the house and the hallway is not wide enough for a wheelchair.
Walking: This is a museum tour so there will be plenty of standing/listening/talking. Not a whole lot of walking. Bring stools if you have them!
Cost: Free!
Go west, young man
Go west, young man
Our reading this week comes to us courtesy of Tara Gilboy. Check out her write up below and join us for a fantastic tour of the Olaf Wieghorst Museum! This week, we'll be touring the museum, hearing a presentation about Wieghorst, and taking a look at the gardens. The Olaf Wieghorst house is also on the museum property, and we will hopefully get to tour this as well (I am told it depends on if we have enough docents that day).
Not only does the Museum showcase some truly fantastic artwork, it reveals just how fascinating a person Wieghorst himself was. Besides being a talented artist, Olaf was at one time an acrobat, trick rider, cavalryman, cowboy, and mounted policeman. His experiences as a cowboy and horseman give truth and reverence to his work.
To start our lesson by watching this short, six-minute video from 1974.
In the clip, Wieghorst is accepting an award, and his speech gives you a great sense of his sense of humor as well as the passion and love that he put into his work. Definitely worth watching -- it gave me goosebumps! Also, a gold star or something to whomever can tell me where else we’ve heard that narrator’s voice before! It sounds super familiar! (6 minutes):
Olaf Wieghorst
Olaf Carl Wieghorst was born to Karl and Anna Wieghorst on April 30, 1899, in the village of Viborg, Jutland, Denmark. Olaf's father was a display artist and a photo retoucher. Olaf's interest in horses came early as a result of his father's association with the Danish Dragoons and he began riding while still a baby. His interest in horses continued to expand and as a youth, he was a bare-back rider in the Schumann Circus and a stunt rider for the Great Northern Film Company.
Olaf's boyhood dream was to be an American cowboy. The passion that Olaf Wieghorst developed for horses and cowboy life would be a source of lifelong inspiration and reflected in his art. The picture to the left is Olaf at age 10.
Olaf's father Karl believed that one of the most important things in life was to keep physically fit. By the age of three, Olaf's father began training him intensively in acrobatic feats such as hand stands and the use of trapeze rings. In 1908 when Olaf was nine his father decided it was time for Olaf to make his professional debut as an acrobat. His first appearance was at the Tivoli Theater in Copenhagen where he was billed as "Little Olaf- The Miniature Acrobat."
When Olaf was only nineteen years he applied for special permission to work aboard a Danish Steamer. The Danish Steamer the "United States" set sail from Copenhagen on December 14, 1918, for New York City. Olaf arrived in New York on December 31, 1918 and jumped ship. He had only $1.25 in his pocket and spoke no English. He had the address of his mother's sister Aunt Olga. Olaf spent the night, the next day, and part of the next night riding the subways looking for his Aunt's place. He finally found a soldier who spoke Danish. The soldier drew him a map with an explanation in Danish. His Uncle Alfred took him to Immigration on Ellis Island and arranged to have his nephew "legalized."
Making his dream of going west a reality, Wieghorst served in the 5th U.S. Cavalry on the Mexican border in the days of Poncho Villa. He later recalled a favorite horse from that period and said that riding through El Paso in 1921, the horse fell on Wieghorst's ankle and broke it. The outfit was heading to Douglas, Arizona, and not wanting to be left behind with his injury, he stayed on the horse, which carried him all the way through the New Mexico desert on one of the hottest days of the year.
The horse died during the night, having expended all his energy on saving the young soldier. Wieghorst later wrote that when the Cavalry discarded the use of horses, "they took the soul out of that great branch of the service."
Want to hear about Wieghorst's Army experiences in his own words?
In this video from 1975, Wieghorst reunites with one of his old Army buddies and they discuss their time in the cavalry, including how bad the food was. :)
After three years of service, he left the military in 1922 and became a real cowboy, wandering through the Southwest, sketching along the way. He spent some time working at the ranch of Elton Cunningham in New Mexico, which had a brand “2C (under an inverse rocker bar)”. This became the trademark on his mature works. You can see a picture of Olaf in uniform in 1919 to the right.
In the fall of 1924, Olaf returned to New York and married Mabel Walters, whom he had met when he first arrived in the United States. He joined the Police Department and was sworn in on December 2, 1924. Because of his experience with horses he was assigned to the Remount Station, where he broke and trained young horses for the Mounted Division. For several years Patrolman Wieghorst was part of the Police Show Team and was the recipient of many blue ribbons and trophies, including some at the National Horse Show held in Madison Square Gardens. He patrolled the Central Park bridle paths on a horse named Rhombo. During his patrols he would stop runaway horses and help fallen riders.
Although the police department did not condone outside business activities for its patrolman, Olaf began selling his work through various outlets during the 1930s. He used a front man named Charlie Aldrich, an old cowboy who had worked for Will Rogers, and began selling drawings and etchings in the lobby of Madison Square Garden. He shared a display table with another painter, Pete Martinez.
From 1938 to 1942 Olaf's drawing and etchings were displayed at the Madison Square Garden Rodeo and in the Rodeo's Official Magazine. (One of those drawings is pictured to the right.)
From 1938 to 1953, Olaf's art was featured on the covers of a Rodeo magazine published in Tucson Arizona titled "Hoofs and Horns." During the World War II years the drawings emphasized patriotism, supporting our soldiers, and the war effort, which you can see in the cover image to the left.
Check out this fascinating video about the development of Wieghorst's artwork. This video was filmed while he was alive and includes footage of one of Wieghorst's trips to Arizona to visit some of the landscapes and people that inspired his art.
Olaf retired from the New York City Police Department in December, 1944, and once again headed west, with Mae and his son Roy. They settled in El Cajon California. Olaf lived in a ranch style house on Renette Avenue (pictured with his wife, Mae, at their home on the right). The house was moved in October, 1999 and restored by the Olaf Wieghorst Museum Foundation and is located in downtown El Cajon on Rea Avenue.
After retiring and moving to El Cajon Olaf settled down to paint, steadily gaining recognition for his classic cowboy and Indian subjects and became a master painter of the western scene.
At the height of his popularity in the ’50s and ’60s, Wieghorst sold paintings to Hollywood celebrities like John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry. Wealthy conservatives admired him, too. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan bought his work, and would-be president Barry Goldwater wrote the foreword to the only biography written about him, William Reed’s Olaf Wieghorst (1969, Northland Press, Flagstaff). “When I first saw a painting by Olaf Wieghorst,” Goldwater writes, “I knew I had to have that painting…I see the Navajo faces, the long hair, the saddles, the horses, and I can know the Navajo.” Wieghorst was “a giant of a man, barrel-chested with muscular arms and hands as big as two of mine and twice as strong. He looked to me as anything but an artist…”
Olaf was honored at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City on November 15, 1974 for his contribution to Western Art. A display was presented at the Hall of Fame with more than fifty of his oil paintings. Wieghorst's prominence and popularity spread, and in 1985 two of his pieces, The Navajo Madonna and The Navajo Man, sold for over $1 million.
The Navajo Man
The Navajo Madonna
Unlike other contemporary western artists, Mr. Wieghorst actually lived the scenes he rendered with such insight. He knew, first hand, the sights and people that are brought to life with such a graceful blend of impressionistic skill and authenticity.
Recognized as the "Dean of Western Painters", Wieghorst's work is often compared with that of Remington and Russell, and his paintings hang in the great public and private collections of western art. The artist died on April 28, 1988 in La Mesa, CA.
For an even more detailed look at Wieghorst's life, check out this obituary in the LA Times.
An You can also check out a longer version of his biography here: https://wieghorst.com/jmd777%20Site/biography/biography.html
estern american art
estern american art
Olaf Wieghorst is known for his work as a Western American Artist. But what is Western American Art and why are we so drawn to it? This wonderful documentary from PBS investigates these questions and more.
It's long, coming in at 56 minutes, but is definitely worth watching.
As the documentary points out, some of the iconic images we think of as "American Western art" is often a mythologized version of the American west that plays into stereotypes of Native Americans, ranchers, cowboys, pioneers, ranchers, lawmen, and outlaws. The phenomenon has given rise to the expression the, "Imagined West."
After reading our lesson and going on our tour, I'd like you to consider how Wieghorst fits into this idea of the "imagined west." Is he painting a mythical version of the west? Or do his paintings capture a more authentic version of the west? Or is it a combination of both? I can't wait to hear your thoughts!
Take a look at many of Olaf Wieghorst's paintings here: http://www.artnet.com/artists/olaf-wieghorst/?type=paintings
Are you interested in western artists? This site includes link to other artists' homes and museums you may want to visit on your next road trip: https://artistshomes.org/style/american-western-art
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