These ‘unsung heroes of Fort Worth’ have a sweeping art exhibit at the Amon Carter
Born in Minnesota, twin brothers Scott and Stuart Gentling moved to Fort Worth at five, where they spent most of their lives.
Known for throwing some of the best parties in the city, they were also among the most popular artists in the region from the late ’60s until the ’80s.
During their heyday, the prolific collaborative artists often sold every single painting at their exhibits, sometimes within minutes. They also designed the Texas sky concept painted on the dome inside the Founders Concert Theater at Bass Performance Hall.
The first comprehensive survey of their work, “Imagined Realism” includes 160 works and is now open through January 9 at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, which celebrated its 60th anniversary on September 25.
Many of these paintings are on loan from private collections and are rarely exhibited publicly.
After being gifted the sketches, diaries, and letters that make up the late brothers’ archives, the museum opened the Gentling Study Center in 2019 to support the acquisition, research, and conservation of their work.
“They are the unsung heroes of Fort Worth’s period from the 1960s right up through the 2000s,” said Amon Carter Executive Director Andrew J. Walker. On November 13, the museum will host a day-long symposium with lectures examining the works of the Gentlings.
“They really are a testament to the artistic community that exists here in the Metroplex,” said Jon Frembling, Amon Carter head museum archivist, who also curated the exhibit.
The brothers were known for in-depth attention to detail in their watercolor works, which are often photorealistic. They are best known for their paintings of Texas birds and landscapes from their 1986 book, “Of Birds and Texas.”
But “Imagined Realism” focuses on the broad range of the Gentlings’ output.
Throughout their careers, the Gentlings explored several intense interests through their art. Scott, for example, developed a passion for etching but abandoned the printmaking technique for good after just a few weeks. The brothers were also amateur archaeologists, collectors of 18th century musical instruments, and their interest in the ancient Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan led to some of the best works included here.
“As children they were amazed by this vast civilization,” Frembling said. “They spent the rest of their lives pursuing this passion.”
Indeed, Stuart learned the Aztec language, Nahuatl, and they gathered duplicate copies of 15th century manuscripts, collected antiquities, and went on archaeological digs.
“They wanted to recreate what the world of the Aztecs looked like at the height of their power,” Frembling said.
Focused on the art and architecture of the Aztec empire, these works include small-scale models of stepped pyramids that once stood in Tenochtitlan. These are truly majestic examples of the brothers’ extraordinary attention to detail and amazing level of draftsmanship. This same level of detail is on display in their Aztec paintings, like “Distant View of Tlatelolco” from 1998 and “The Great Sacred Square, Tenochtitlan” from 1998, two other highlights of the show.
The Gentlings were also so fascinated by the French Revolution that they wore 18th century garments.
“They wore them as a way to inhabit that moment and step into that mindset while creating their works,” Frembling said.
But instead of recreating historical events, the Gentlings painted portraits of artists like Ed Ruscha and Andrew Wyeth in historical garments.
“They know their historical context and are deeply engaged with that,” Frembling said. “But their notion of realism is always shaped by their imagination.”
They also painted a formal portrait of George W. Bush in 2001, along with a less formal outdoor portrait of the 43rd U.S. President a year later. The influence of John James Audubon, a trip to the Museum of Science and History, and Stuart’s interest in taxidermy led to their paintings of Texas birds, foxes, and insects.
The Gentlings were unique collaborators who worked together throughout their lives, and it is often impossible to tell their contributions apart. But a 1965 watercolor, “Bird Cage,” was painted alone by Stuart. Dwarfed by its shadow and empty, the bird cage seems to convey a surprising amount of loneliness absent from most of the other works.
But the tail end of this show is also particularly poignant. It features a few works Scott made alone in the last five years of his life, after Stuart’s death in 2006.