The exhibit Beyond the Saddle: The Artistic Journey of Edward Burns Quigley opens at the High Desert Museum on Aug. 28.
The show includes 20 works, from traditional oil paintings, cartoons, and World War I era works to magazine covers.
This exhibit illustrates the scope of his work as it relates to his life, from high school and World War I to his love of horses and the wild range land of eastern Washington. One artifact, Quigley’s easel, is on display.
Quigley came of age in the Pacific Northwest in the early twentieth century. It was an era when horses were an important and ever-present part of Western life. As an artist, they were his favorite subjects.
“Beyond the horses that he was known for, across a career that spanned a half a century, Quigley used his sketchbook and paint brush to capture an array of artistic expressions,” said Bob Boyd, the Museum’s curator of Western History, who created the exhibit with Tracy Johnson, curator of collections and exhibits. “From his high school years and military service in France, to art school and commercial work in Chicago, and eventual return to the Pacific Northwest, his art spanned a broad spectrum of style and medium.”
From humorous cartoons and caricatures to an array of commercial art subjects, Works Progress Administration murals in public buildings, and woodcarvings, Ed Quigley created what enabled him to survive and succeed as an artist.
He also recorded reservation riders and their wild horses, and scenes of ranch and range in northeastern Oregon. While these are the images for which he is best remembered, in Beyond the Saddle the Museum presents these lesser known images from his artistic journey through life.
The exhibit runs through January 10.
