In the Remington Moment

For most people, the work of Frederic Remington conjures an antiquarian world of all things western. Why this is so, and whether it should be so, are two of the critical questions raised in this book. Stephen Tatum closely considers selected paintings from Remingtons last four years of lifehis so-called years of critical acclaim. Tatums purpose is twofold: first, to understand these paintings, both formally and thematically, within their historical, aesthetic, and biographical contexts; and second, to account for what endows them todayafter marking the centennial of Remingtons death in 1909with continuing aesthetic and cultural significance. To this end, Tatum examines these late paintings in relation to Remingtons other works, his letters and published writings, his evolving critical reception, and the writing and artwork of other cultural figures of the era, such as historian Frederick Jackson Turner and sociologist Georg Simmel. The book provides an illuminating glimpse of how and why particular Remington works might seize a viewers attention in his or her past or present moment of receptionhow in fact their unstable visual complexity can ultimately absorb their viewer. In his Coda, Tatum offers a personal memoir of his own encounter with Remingtons The Love Call, a critical meditation enacting and questioning the Remington Moment.