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Fritz Scholder: Breaking Away The Art of Empty Space: Roswell Artist-in-Residence: West of Beyond: Robert H. Goddard Collection of Liquid |
West of Beyond: The Rogers and Mary Ellen Aston Collection of the American West Aston Galleries: Permanent Collection |
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The mandate to collect is central to museums as institutions and bears a salient relationship to the cultural materials amassed by Rogers Aston, an independent oil producer, rancher, sculptor, and philanthropist. Aston, who was born in Iowa in 1918, developed a keen interest in the West during time spent on his family’s various ranches. When nearly forty, he began casting bronzes, using his collection as prop material for the creation of sculptures portraying poignant moments in the history of the American West. Noted western artist Tom Lovell, a mentor to Aston, commented, “Devotion to detail and fidelity to character are his hallmarks. One may be certain that if a weapon or costume is portrayed, it is correct.”
West of Beyond explores this intersection and reveals stories, both ordinary and extraordinary, that span a vast terrain of time and space. In 1999, Rogers and Mary Ellen Aston bequeathed their collection to the Roswell Museum and Art Center, and in that year the Museum embarked on a $676,000 project that would provide an interpretive framework for this collection, arranging the artifacts into five topical thematic clusters that stress cultural change and interaction over time: Family and Community, Spirit, Farming and Ranching, Trade and Exchange, and War and Conquest. On October 27, 2006 the Roswell Museum and Art Center opened West of Beyond. |
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West of Beyond includes nearly 2,000 artifacts and works of art that are punctuated by the histories of diverse peoples who sparked the formation and reformation of the American West. For centuries, the West has been a crossroads for exploration, warfare, trade, and settlement where native and foreign peoples have met in the contrasting landscape, affecting and assimilating one another’s customs, beliefs, and lifeways. The Roswell Museum and Art Center acknowledges the following donors and individuals who have contributed to this undertaking. The Estate of Rogers and Mary Ellen Aston Save America’s Treasures, a grant administered by the National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior, through the efforts of the late Congressman Joe Skeen with assistance from Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete V. Domenici. State of New Mexico through the efforts of Senators Rod Adair, Stuart Ingle, and Tim Jennings and Representatives Dan Foley, Pauline Ponce, and the late Avon Wilson. Rogers and Mary Ellen Aston Trust Project Design: Lord Cultural Resources The material in this exhibit is based upon work assisted by a grant from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior. |
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