Billings’ YAM features Floyd D. Tunson, Will James

The Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings opened two new exhibitions last week that show two interpretations of the West, one through the work of author and illustrator Will James and the other through the sculptural installations of Colorado artist Floyd D. Tunson.

“Ride ‘Em: The Art of Will James” is organized from the museum’s holdings of artwork, journals, letters and ephemera of the Will James Collection, which was bequeathed to the museum in 2001 by Virginia Snook, with whose family James was a friend.

James (1892-1942) was well-known during his lifetime as a writer and illustrator of western novels.

“Over the years, given the number of objects, we haven’t had the room to show the entire collection at one time,” said Bob Durden senior curator at Yellowstone Art Museum.

Objects from the collection have been rotated in and out, Durden said, but many have never been seen by the public before.

Along with the James exhibition is “Floyd D. Tunson: Son of Pop,” a large-scale installation called “Pop-Up Rodeo.”

Born in 1947 and heavily influenced by the pop art of the 1960s, Tunson’s work explores the stereotypes of the West and rodeos.

“When he was aware that there were black Americans who contributed to the aspect of rodeoing and cowboying in the American west, and it goes contrary to our own stereotypes about the West. So for him, his thinking was so often that we overlook what’s right there,” Durden said.

The Tunson exhibition is organized by the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and presented at the YAM as part of a limited venue tour. The James exhibition was organized by YAM associate curator Liz Harding.

While the Tunson and James exhibitions were not planned to coincide, they go well together, said Durden.

“We always manage a way to make our exhibitions intersect in terms of interpretation, so we have an interesting marriage of exhibitions,” he said.

The exhibition is open through June 14. The museum is at 401 N 27th St. in Billings. For information on hours and admission, go to http://www.artmuseum.org/plan-your-visit/ or call 406-256-6804