As the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, reflecting on the past holds particular significance in Thom Ross’s art.
Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with a career spanning more than five decades, Ross is known for his distinct visual language and storytelling approach to Western subjects, bringing historical material into the present with intensity, wit, and emotional force.
As an American painter, he is also known for his dynamic reinterpretations of Western history, exploring the intersection of narrative, memory, and cultural identity, and offering a contemporary view of iconic figures and events of the American West.
Opening on the eve of America’s 250th anniversary at the Hemmings Gallery in Ketchum, Ross will debut a new body of work inspired by Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. The exhibition reflects on national identity and myth through one of the country’s earliest cultural spectacles.
Founded in 1883 by William F. Cody, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West toured the U.S. and Western Europe for more than thirty years, drawing tens of millions of viewers worldwide. Countless newspaper articles, books, and plays followed, making Cody one of the era’s most recognizable figures and the myth of the American West one of its most significant exports.
“At the turn of the century, Buffalo Bill Cody was the most famous star in the world and witnessed the advent of modern photography, which created what we now know as the Western. Cody was able to take a nightmare moment in history and turn it into entertainment,” he said. “Cody is the guy who was the real deal,” added Ross. “He was a buffalo hunter, a pony express rider, and lived in the heart of the Wild West. He knew the generals of his day and had a personal relationship with Sitting Bull.”
Before film and television, there was Buffalo Bill’s Wild West—a thunderous arena of galloping horses, cavalry battles, buffalo hunts, and stagecoach chases brought dramatically to life before thousands of astonished spectators.
Audiences watched riders race at full speed through clouds of dust as the sharp crack of pistols rang out, and undaunted performers stunned crowds with impossible feats. Equal parts theater and adrenaline-fueled live action, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West transported viewers to an imagined American frontier where performance and reality blended in ways that continue to shape how the West is seen today.
“Queen Victoria stood up and saluted Cody at a private show Cody performed for her,” said Ross. “She was the first reigning monarch ever to salute the American flag.” He added, “When the show was over, she came down and walked among it, then went up to the Indians and remarked that they were the most beautiful people she had ever seen. Many of the young European children who saw the show grew up and eventually moved to America. Also, at the turn of the century, many famous European artists came to America because they could not believe there was a country where people rode horses and shot guns.”
Ross’s paintings reinterpret this sepia-toned history through bold color, expressive energy, and narrative depth, capturing both the theatrical spectacle and its more introspective undertones. He explores the blurred boundaries between fact and fiction, inviting viewers to reconsider how myths of the American West are constructed and perpetuated.
“It is the consciousness of the universe in which we are a small part,” said Ross. “But we can take small vignettes like Cody and use them as a key to the bigger picture.”
Ross has created Buffalo Bill’s Wild West to offer a compelling perspective on the history, performance, and interpretation of our 250th anniversary, which he grounds in his signature Western ambiance and larger-than-life figures that evoke the past with a dignified, contemporary appeal, conveyed through his use of color, line, and characterization.
“It’s all here,” said Ross. “The idea that my work is out there telling new stories means the painting is doing all the work, which is incredible.”
Throughout his life as a prominent painter based in the American West, Ross has always been able to balance the depth of history—archetypes ranging from the horrific to the heroic—serving as a mirror to the past and a gift to the present, fascinating, unique, and captivating, yet always familiar.
“The West we think we know has been staged, performed, and retold for more than a hundred years,” said Ross. “I’m interested in that space—where fact and fiction blur, where reality becomes myth—and in how Cody seemed to move with ease between the two worlds.”
INFO BOX:
July 3-August 1
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
Hemmings Gallery
340 Walnut Avenue | Ketchum
hemmingsgallery.com
208.254.1097
July 3
Opening Night Reception
5 – 7:30 p.m. with Thom Ross in attendance
