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Showdown at "The West as America" Exhibition

On March 14, the exhibition "The West As America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820-1920" opened at the National Museum of American Art. The purpose of the exhibition and book, written by NMAA curator William Truettner and a team of seven scholars of western art, was to document how frontier images define our idea of the national past. The exhibition has received extensive media coverage, both negative and positive, for its decided point of view regarding the images on display, especially as they are interpreted in the accompanying wall text. For more than a year now, it has been NMAA practice to place a blank book at the exit of each show for visitors to record their responses. The level of engagement by viewers has been mind-opening. Rather than commission a professional commentary, we decided to reproduce a selection of viewers' opinions from the comment books. As of this writing, the public's overwhelming response to the show has generated three large volumes of commentary. This selection is from the first volume only, from March 14 through May 15. Some general comments about the comments: Of approximately 735 comments, 509 were specifically positive about some aspect of the show. One hundred and ninety-nine people singled out the wall texts for praise, while 177 felt negatively about them. An additional 136 people wrote about other comments or other issues. The level of engagement with the art works has been extraordinary. Besides a plethora of general opinions to the effect of "great show" or "loved the paintings of Indians" or "wonderful art but the commentary stinks," there were many specific comments, which reflected considerable thought. After the first fifty pages or so-and as the press coverage intensified-people often commented on the comments as well. For those who were positive about the show, the most frequently used word was