Maynard Dixon

Lafayette Maynard Dixon (January 24, 1875 – November 11, 1946) was an American artist. He was known for his paintings, and his body of work focused on the American West. Dixon is considered one of the finest artists having dedicated most of their art to the U.S. Southwestern cultures and landscapes at the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. He was often called "The Last Cowboy in San Francisco."

Through his work with the Galerie Beaux Arts, a cooperative gallery in San Francisco, Dixon played a pivotal role ensuring the West Coast supported the work of local, modern artists. He was married for a time to photographer Dorothea Lange, and later to painter Edith Hamlin.

Early life and education He was born Lafayette Maynard Dixon on January 24, 1875, in Fresno, California, he was named after his maternal grandfather. His father was Harry St. John Dixon, a former Mississippi Confederate States Army officer turned lawyer and rancher. His mother, Constance Maynard, a well-educated daughter of a U.S. Navy officer from San Francisco, shared her love of classic literature with the young boy and encouraged him in his writing and drawing. His youngest brother Harry Dixon was a noted metalsmith.

Dixon moved to San Francisco in 1893 and studied with Arthur Mathews at the California School of Design (now San Francisco Art Institute). To insure a steady income, he worked as an illustrator for local newspapers and magazines (including the Overland Monthly and Sunset magazine), and illustrated numerous books, such as Clarence E. Mulford’s Hopalong Cassidy.

For his first exhibition in the southwest, Dixon contributed four oils to the show of Modern Art From The American West curated by the well-known impressionist Jennie V. Cannon at the University of Arizona in Tucson in December of 1912. Thereafter he exhibited at major venues: California Society of Artists (1902); Bohemian Club (1903–1928); San Francisco Art Association (1903–1931); Newspaper Artists League (1903); Press Club (1904); Hotel Del Monte Art Gallery (1907–1909); Panama–Pacific International Exposition (1915); Gump's Gallery (1920 – solo exhibition); San Francisco Print Rooms (1920 – this show was later sent to Honolulu); San Francisco's Don Lee Galleries (1923); Oakland Art Gallery (1926–1928); University of California, Berkeley (1928); California State Fair (1928); and Golden Gate International Exposition (1939).

Between 1925 and 1933, art dealer Beatrice Judd Ryan ran the Galerie Beaux Arts in San Francisco, with guidance from Dixon. The Galerie Beaux Arts was the first contemporary gallery in the city, as well as a cooperative nonprofit, which supported local modern artists.

In 1926, Dixon was co-curator with Laura Adams Armer for an exhibit of “Pueblo and Navajo Arts & Crafts” at the Paul Elder Gallery of San Francisco under the auspices of the Indian Defense Association of Central and Northern California. In 1927 he joined several prominent artists in a boycott of the Bohemian Club Annual Exhibition when works of the more “modern” artists were excluded. During February 1930 he was one of a handful of artists, which included Ralph Stackpole, Otis Oldfield, Helen Katharine Forbes, and several others, who contributed to a Galerie Beaux Arts show where the subject of every painting was the same female model. During the summer of 1931 he exhibited with the most prominent artists of the west, including William Ritschel, Armin Hansen, Granville Redmond, and Leland Curtis, at the Tahoe Tavern on Lake Tahoe. Between 1935 and 1943 he was a member of the Society of the Thirteen Watercolorists that exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Art, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Stanford University Art Gallery, and de Young Museum.

Dixon developed his style during this period, and western themes became a trademark for him. In San Francisco, Dixon was considered a colorful character with a good sense of humor. He often dressed like a cowboy and seemed determined to impart a western style, most often in the form of a black Stetson hat, boots, and a bolo tie. the source of some of Dixon's greatest art. In 1939, the couple built a summer home in Mount Carmel, where Dixon found new friends and became reacquainted with the local natural landscapes. He lived near the cottonwood trees along an old irrigation ditch and took short hikes to a plateau where he loved the quiet. Dixon spent winter months in Tucson, where the couple also had a home and studio.

Dixon continued to create simple but powerful compositions in which non-essential elements were distilled or eliminated. His last public work was the "Palomino Ponies" mural at the Canoga Park Post Office. In 1946, Maynard died at his home in Tucson. In the spring of 1947, his widow Edith brought his ashes to Mount Carmel where she buried them on a high bluff above the art studio being built on the property. This had been at his request and she felt it a fitting tribute where friends could come to pay respects and view the land that he loved.

In addition to painting, he also wrote poetry. An article in the California Historical Quarterly described his poetry as "very competent and sometimes superb."

Legacy There are three museums devoted to Dixon and his works. The largest collection of Dixon's works is at Brigham Young University, at the Museum of Art.

The Maynard and Edith Hamlin Dixon House and Studio, operated by the Thunderbird Foundation, offers guided tours at Mount Carmel, Utah. The foundation is working to establish a separate museum and regional art center that would feature works by Maynard Dixon and his circle, Milford Zornes and his circle, as well as contemporary work by local artists.

There is a Maynard Dixon Museum in the same complex as and owned by the Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona. Works by Dixon include paintings, watercolors, pastels, drawings, poetry, and illustrations.

The full-length documentary film, Maynard Dixon: Art and Spirit (2007) was directed by Jayne McKay, and includes candid commentary from their children and extended family. The television program, Maynard Dixon: To the Desert Again (2007), was produced by KUED-TV.

There is a statue of Dixon in front of Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West.

Exhibitions

"Maynard Dixon – Images of the Native American". California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California. June–October 1981 "Maynard Dixon". University of California Berkeley Art Museum – MATRIX, Berkeley, California. December 15, 1981 – March 7, 1982 "Escape to Reality": The Western World of Maynard Dixon". Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. November 2000 – November 2001 "Maynard Dixon". University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. January to April 2005 "Maynard Dixon – Masterpieces from Brigham Young University & Private Collections". Pacific Museum of California Art, Pasadena, California, June–August 2007. "Widening the Horizon: New Mexico Landscapes". Matthews Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico. June 13–30, 2015 "Maynard Dixon: Beyond the Clouds". Western Museum, Wickenburg, Arizona. December 2016 – March 2017 "Maynard Dixon: The Paltenghi Collections". Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada. January to July 2017 "Maynard Dixon’s New Mexico Centennial", El Museo Cultural – Objects of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico. August 2018 "Along the Distant Mesa: An Homage to Maynard Dixon", Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, Arizona, March–April 2019 "Maynard Dixon's American West," Western Spirit: Scottsdale Museum of the West, Oct 2019 – July 2020 “Maynard Dixon: Searching for a Home”, Provo, Utah, Brigham Young University Museum of Art, Oct 2022 – Sept 2023