Raised in a one-room log cabin in a small North Texas town, Amon G. Carter (1879–1955) rose to become the founder and publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a seat of power from which he relentlessly promoted the city of Fort Worth, amassed a fortune, and established himself as the quintessential Texan of his era. The first in-depth, scholarly biography of this outsize character and civic booster, Amon Carter: A Lone Star Life chronicles a remarkable life and places it in the larger context of state and nation. Though best known for the Star-Telegram, Carter also established WBAP, Fort Worth’s first radio station, which in 1948 became the first television station in the Southwest. He was responsible for bringing the headquarters of what would become American Airlines to Fort Worth and for securing government funding for a local aircraft factory that evolved into Lockheed Martin. Historian Brian A. Cervantez has drawn on Texas Christian University’s rich collection of Carter papers to chart Carter’s quest to bring business and government projects to his adopted hometown, enterprises that led to friendships with prominent national figures such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Will Rogers, H. L. Mencken, and John Nance Garner. After making millions of dollars in the oil business, Carter used his wealth to fund schools, hospitals, museums, churches, parks, and camps. His numerous philanthropic efforts culminated in the Amon G. Carter Foundation, which still supports cultural and educational endeavors throughout Texas. He was a driving force behind the establishment of Texas Tech University, a major contributor to Texas Christian University, a key figure in the creation of Big Bend National Park, and an art lover whose collection of the works of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell served as the foundation of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Amon Carter: A Lone Star Life testifies to the singular character and career of one man whose influence can be seen throughout the cultural and civic life of Fort Worth, Texas, and the American Southwest to this day.

This is the first major publication on the art and lives of twentieth-century Fort Worth artists Scott (1942–2011) and Stuart (1942–2006) Gentling. Prolific modern-day Renaissance men, the brothers created an extensive body of landscapes; portraits of regional and national luminaries; historical studies ranging from a visual reconstruction of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan to subjects drawn from the French and American Revolutions; and natural history illustrations of the flora and fauna of Texas. Realist painters, they drew inspiration from past masters such as Jacques-Louis David and John James Audubon, and they corresponded and collaborated with contemporaries such as Andrew Wyeth and Ed Ruscha. The Gentling brothers’ place within the canon of twentieth-century American art is established here. Along with 290 images, including 120 plates, the book includes five essays, two by scholars Erika Doss of the University of Notre Dame and Barbara Mundy of Fordham University; a trio of Carter museum curators provide deep analyses of the Gentlings’ artistic process, the output of their fifty-year career, and a chronology of their lives; plus several brief and incisive takes on specific aspects of the brothers’ multifaceted art and lives are featured throughout.

Cabinet cards were America’s main format for photographic portraiture throughout the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Standardized at 6½ x 4¼ inches, they were just large enough to reveal extensive detail, leading to the incorporation of elaborate poses, backdrops, and props. Inexpensive and sold by the dozen, they transformed getting one’s portrait made from a formal event taken up once or twice in a lifetime into a commonplace practice shared with friends. The cards reinforced middle-class Americans’ sense of family. They allowed people to show off their material achievements and comforts, and the best cards projected an informal immediacy that encouraged viewers to feel emotionally connected with those portrayed. The experience even led sitters to act out before the camera. By making photographs an easygoing fact of life, the cards forecast the snapshot and today’s ubiquitous photo sharing. Organized by senior curator John Rohrbach, Acting Out is the first ever in-depth examination of the cabinet card phenomena. Full-color plates include over 100 cards at full size, providing a highly entertaining collection of these early versions of the selfie and ultimately demonstrating how cabinet cards made photography modern. Published in association with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Tentative exhibition dates (postponed due to COVID-19): Amon Carter Museum of American Art: August 2020 Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA): 2021

In this dazzling expeditionary volume, Mark Dion investigates the layered history of the Lone Star State.

Signed by the Author - Signature Series Collectible - Based on the real story of a bird named Lucky.

Everett Spruce came to Texas from his Arkansas home in 1925 to study at the Dallas Art Institute. Over the next seven decades, he became one of the most important painters and teachers in the region. One of the “Dallas Nine,” a group of influential Texas Regionalists that included Jerry Bywaters, Otis Dozier, William Lester, and others, Spruce was among the artists who lobbied the Texas Centennial Commission for a greater role in the Centennial Exposition of 1936. These efforts, though unsuccessful, nevertheless led to greater recognition and influence for Texas art and artists. Spruce was assistant director and taught art at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts until 1940 when he joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin. He painted and taught at the university for the next 38 years, guiding and shaping the next generation of Texas artists, including Roger Winter, William Hoey, and others. Spruce died in 2002 at the age of 94. Texas Made Modern: The Art of Everett Spruce traces Spruce’s artistic evolution from his early experimental work of the 1920s through the mysterious, surrealist-imbued landscapes of the 1930s. The work addresses his boldly expressionistic imagery of the 1940s and his abstract expressionist–inspired paintings of the mid-twentieth century. Departing from previous accounts of Spruce, which label him a prototypical regionalist, this study reveals the nuanced meanings behind the artist’s shifting approaches to Texas subject matter and resituates his artwork within the broader narrative of American art.