Sid Richardson Museum exhibit highlights Remington and Russell in Black and White

If art lovers downtown this weekend for the Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival and Fort Worth Art Fair need a respite (and air conditioning), mosey over to the Sid Richardson Museum, where the rare combination of a fun and intellectual exhibit Remington and Russell in Black and White is on display until April 21.

Scott Winterrowd, the Sid Richardson Museum’s director, has to work within the confines of the museum’s mission of displaying Western art, primarily by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, collected by the museum’s namesake, the late Sid Richardson.

Unlike the Amon Carter of Museum of American Art, which has transformed itself from a similar collection of Remingtons and Russells collected by its namesake and former Star-Telegram publisher into a museum telling the ongoing history of American art, the Richardson has stuck to its mission.

Remington and Russell in Black and White is the tale of the American West not through their well-known paintings and sculptures. These are instead their illustrations from intellectual magazines, advertisements and calendars.

The era from 1880 to 1930 was a boon for mass production and artists, who were operating in a world before photography was widely used.

The show is small, only taking up two rooms. But spaciously full of sketches, paintings, text and other media showcasing their contributions to the commercial art movement, and a growing fascination with too many of an unknown and wild American West. Remington and Russell were among the foremost creators of the West. Remington also wrote about it.

The museum is open Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday from noon – 5 p.m. Admission is free.