Buswell photos on display at USU museum
The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, located on the campus of Utah State University, Logan, houses an exhibition of photographs by Dr. Richard Buswell, “Silent Frontier: Icons of Montana’s Early Settlement,” through Aug. 7.
“Silent Frontier: Icons of Montana’s Early Settlement” is an exhibition of black and white photographs of Montana’s back country frontier. The exhibition contains new photographs of hidden Montana ghost towns and isolated sites of early settlements. Through photographs of personal possessions and eroding structures, Buswell tells tales of nature’s reclamation of frontier sites.
“Buswell shoots his frontier artifacts as if they were religious icons, in a bath of light … There are stairs going nowhere, window frames of skeleton walls, a tunnel that drips stalactites, rooftop shakes embroidered with moss, and burlap curtains where birds drop their droppings,” said filmmaker Annick Smith of the work.. “Such images are eloquent and alive. The lady of the house is gone, but her breath moves the curtains. Children’s voices echo in bunchgrass. Sky is all that the silo holds. The dredge pump has emptied the river of gold.”
Dr. Buswell is a full-time practicing physician and fourth-generation Montanan who has spent the last 30 years scouring the back country for secret troves. He uses research and leads from patients and friends to find sites and then records meticulous notes of the territory he has explored.
“His message, whether encased in dusty beauty or brilliant western light, is this: the silence of the frontier is a testimony,” said Maggie Mudd, director of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture. “The map is never finished. What moves through is destined to perish. Only the way, the passage, matters. What remains is a mere teasing memory of that experience, however sacred or misguided.”
Dr. Buswell’s work has been acquired by many national museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, the Library of Congress and Harvard University’s Fogg Art Museum.
The exhibition is documented by a fully illustrated book published by the Montana Museum of Art and the University of Montana.
For more information or to schedule a tour of the museum, call (435) 797-0165.
The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art is located on the USU campus at 650 North 1100 East, Logan, Utah, 84322, (435) 797-0163, Fax (435) 797-3423, http://www.artmuseum.usu.edu.
Summer hours at the museum, May 25 though Aug. 25, are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The museum is closed Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Admission is free. The museum is accessible to persons with disabilities.
Parking for the museum is available in lot “C3” to the west of the museum. Parking fee for the area is $6 ($3 is refunded if patrons park two hours or less). After 3:45 p.m. and on weekends, parking is free. Parking is also available in the parking terrace (850 East 700 N.) near
the Taggart Student Center for $1.50/hour ($7.50/day maximum). Free parking is also available after 2 p.m. in lot “B” located at the corner of 700 North and 1200 East (by Aggie Ice Cream).