June 21, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Sarah Boehme, Director
409.886.ARTS (2787)
Stark Museum Sponsors Charlie Russell’s Yarns
ORANGE, Texas, TBD The Stark Museum of Art will sponsor Charlie Russell’s Yarns, a performance by Raphael Cristy on Thursday, July 15, 2010, 6:30 - 7:45 p.m. at Lutcher Theater, 707 Main Street, Orange, Texas. Following the performance, a book-signing and reception will take place at the Stark Museum of Art, 712 Green Avenue, Orange. This event is free to the public. Western attire is encouraged.
In this internationally acclaimed show, author and performer Raphael Cristy portrays “cowboy artist” Charles M. Russell (1864 – 1926). America's most popular painter and sculptor of the “Old West,” Russell also told exciting and hilarious yarns of the region. Based on direct quotations from the artist’s own short stories and illustrated letters, Charlie Russell's Yarns features virtuoso storytelling with hundreds of slides of Russell’s art as backdrops.
Raphael Cristy is the author of the book Charles M. Russell: The Storyteller’s Art, published by the University of New Mexico Press. He also contributed an essay to the publication Charles M. Russell: A Catalogue Raisonné. Cristy earned his M.A. in History at the University of Montana and his Ph.D. in American History at the University of New Mexico. He is the recipient of the Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma and has taught American history at the University of Montana, the University of New Mexico and the College of Santa Fe. Cristy has performed Charlie Russell’s Yarns for audiences across the United States and abroad.
“The performance of Charlie Russell’s Yarns comes to Orange at the time of a renewed interest in Russell’s life and work,” said Director of the Stark Museum of Art Sarah Boehme. “The first major Russell exhibition, The Masterworks of Charles M. Russell: A Retrospective of Paintings and Sculpture, is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston this summer. At the Stark Museum of Art we have recently changed the installation of Charles Russell’s works. Museum visitors will see drawings, illustrated letters and sculptures, including the large-size sculpture Meat for Wild Men. Many of these have not been on view for a long period of time. Raphael Cristy’s portrayal of Russell brings insight into the humorous and engaging man behind the art. His Russell stories also share rural views and social commentary that are relevant today.”
Located at 712 Green Avenue in Orange, Texas, the Stark Museum of Art is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Admission is free. Group tours are available by appointment. For more information call 409.886.ARTS (2787) or visit www.starkmuseum.org.
Raphael Cristy. Photo by Ural of Boise.
About the Stark Museum of Art
The Stark Museum of Art focuses on the stunning land, the dramatic people and the diverse wildlife of the American West. Paintings, sculpture and prints interpret the West from nineteenth century frontier artists to the twentieth century artistic colonies in New Mexico. Artists include John James Audubon, Frederic Remington, Charles Marion Russell, and Georgia O’Keeffe.
The Museum also features a significant collection of American Indian objects, including baskets, pottery, clothing and weavings. Other permanent collections in the Museum include the complete porcelain American Bird Series by Dorothy Doughty and the only complete series of The United States in Crystal, a collection of crystal urns produced by Steuben Glass to depict the 50 states and the Union.
The Stark Museum of Art is a program of the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, a private operating foundation, whose other programs include the Frances Ann Lutcher Theater for the Performing Arts, Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center, and The W.H. Stark House.