Gordon Snidow, What's the Hold-Up?, gouache, 9x12, $7,500

Gordon Snidow

Gordon Snidow has been known as the foremost chronicler of the contemporary cowboy for over forty years. He is a leader in the development of the American Western Art Movement, and is one of America's out-standing fine artists.

"The West, like all places, is a continuum of space and time; it is as alive and vibrant in today's guise - and as Snidow paints it - as it was when George Catlin, Charles M. Russell, Frederic Remington and their successors through the years painted it.

He is a historian who records his time in pictures rather than words, and as Russell and other in-their-time "contemporary" chroniclers of the West are seen today as painters of the "Historic West," so Snidow will be seen in the future." Prix de West 2004 catalog

Snidow is recording other aspects of his time. Those include his American Woman Series, Homeless, Wildlife, and one specific work recognizable anywhere in the country today - an adobe wall covered with graffiti. All are parts of his view of the "whole fabric" of the modern West. He paints it not as he would like it to be, but the way it is - warts and all. There are no guarantees for the future of the cowboy, but there is for his past. Thanks to Gordon Snidow, the cowboy in the late 20th century, and his Western world will be preserved.

Snidow was born in Paris, Mo. in 1936. He grew up there, in Oklahoma, and Texas. Graduating in 1959, he earned a BFA from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, CA. He is a charter member of the Cowboy Artists of America. When he retired after 25 years to become a member emeritus, he was the Cowboy Artists of America top medal winner. Snidow had won 27 Gold and Silver Medals, including three for Best of Show. His work can be found in the permanent collection of the leading Western Art Museums. Some of these are Thomas Gilcrease Museum, The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, The National Center for American Western Art, The Cody Museum, and The Phoenix Art Museum.

In September 1998, Gordon was awarded the "New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts." December of 1999, Snidow was chosen by Art of The West as one of "The Twelve Most Compelling Artists of America Today whose work will be remembered 100 years from now". Annually he participates in several shows, including the Prix de West Show at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and The Cowboy Artists of America Show at the Phoenix Art Museum.

A one-man retrospective show of Snidow's work was organized by The Hubbard Museum of The American West, in Ruidoso, New Mexico and featured more than 120 art works by Snidow covering over 6 decades of his life. The Exhibit "My Story" opened May 2002 at the Hubbard, then moved to the National Museum of Western Art, in Kerrville, Texas, and ended May 2003 at the Smithsonian Museum