On the surface of things, it is sometime hard to fathom how modernism
could take such strong hold in Fort Worth, Texas, during the interior
decades of the twentieth century. Given the community’s colorful
history and identity as a rambunctious cattle town, one might have
projected that denizens of this self-proclaimed “Gateway to the West,”
may well have rejected the avant-garde in favor of more conservative
art fare, something with a Western flare, perhaps. While prominent art
patrons of the venerable old “Cowtown” have certainly collected their
fair share of Remington, Russell and other such fine examples of Western
genre, the city simultaneously nurtured and eventually embraced it’s
own distinctive brand of Texas Modernism during the middle years of
the twentieth century. In this exhibition, Regional Connotations, William
Reaves Fine Art explores the work of two of Fort Worth’s foremost midcentury
modernists – Cynthia Brants (1924-2006) and McKie Trotter
(1918-1999).
