Judith Mountains 

Devin Leonardi made this painting, Judith Mountains, using casein and gouache on paper. A nostalgic image of the American West, it shows a man and child on horseback against a backdrop of stylized mountains. The figures’ dark silhouette adds a sense of anonymity, while their cowboy hats place them within a specific cultural history, laden with myths about frontier life. But it's the mountains in the background that demand our attention. Rendered in unnatural purples and whites, they hover as backdrops of the imagination, like scenery in a theatrical production. Leonardi, who lived from 1981 to 2014, worked in a tradition of painters who questioned the status quo by revisiting historical styles. His engagement with tropes of the ‘Wild West’ highlights the way we collectively create history through memory and artistic representation. To fully appreciate this artist's work, one should examine the art market and exhibition spaces that supported and promoted his art.